


Badge Of Red

by CanuckleheadCowgirl, magnetocerebro



Series: The 714 Marvel Universe [26]
Category: Avengers, X-Men, Young Avengers
Genre: 714 Universe - Freeform, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-15
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-01-14 11:53:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 59,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18475699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CanuckleheadCowgirl/pseuds/CanuckleheadCowgirl, https://archiveofourown.org/users/magnetocerebro/pseuds/magnetocerebro
Summary: In Vol. 23 of the 714 Universe,  our heroes face yet another uphill battle that cannot be fought with fists alone! How sad. Several high-powered-powered up baddies as well as your run of the mill evil villain humans have it out for the X-Men (what else is new) but that won't stop our heroes from LIVING their lives. JOIN US as we see where fate will go





	1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Tony Stark Is (Not So Secretly) A Sweetie**

* * *

 

It had been exactly a year since the MRD kidnapping that had launched the Leslie Initiative, so of course, that's all anyone was talking about on the news that morning as the X-Men trickled in for coffee.

Which was also exactly why the Wright family hadn't been seen around the mansion much — at least not in any room that had the news on. Leslie Ann  _hated_ the reminders.

The news was running an overview of everything that had happened in the past year concerning mutant rights — from the overturning the Initiative to the attempt by the Senate to try to push better legislation that got killed in committee to  _The Response Division_  to the rallies and rise in hate crimes. It was all pretty standard "year in review" fare until one of the anchors picked up a thread that had Scott listening a little closer.

"And of course, I doubt this was purposeful, considering the long road to get here, but the court fight against the registration laws has made it to the Supreme Court after years of appeals," the anchor said.

Her partner nodded. "It's been a quiet fight, with lawyers declining to comment in an attempt to stay out of the public eye — and as you can see from the response to the more public attempts to push back against mutant control, that was probably a good idea."

The first anchor nodded her agreement. "It's a story years in the making, with dozens of the country's top lawyers involved. The Court is expected to hear the case starting later this week, and a spokesperson for the White House declined to comment on whether the timing was purposeful or not."

"It's unlikely that they'll make a decision immediately, but the rumors on the Hill are that some senators and representatives are already prepared to push another bill forward if this one is struck down."

"They'll face some stiff opposition," the anchor said. "Midterm primaries are starting up around the country, and a bill this controversial could make or break a politician's career."

The conversation shifted from there to talking about the legacy of the Leslie Initiative and what that kind of political stormcloud could do to hinder the efforts of any politician supporting a registration bill, though Scott was frowning over the fact that the registration bill was even up in the air. He'd thought that fight was already over.

He didn't say anything about it over breakfast that morning — since the whole day was a little touch and go for Leslie Ann when she came down for scrambled eggs and toast — but when Steve and Carol arrived later that day for a scheduled teammate swap, Scott took the opportunity to pull Steve aside and ask for a private word.

"Did you know about this?" he asked as he closed the door behind them and gestured to the newspaper he'd brought — with an article on the registration fight.

"I thought it was dead," Steve said with a little frown "But that ... " He let out an irritated noise. "I don't understand why they won't drop it. Public opinion is against it."

"Public opinion doesn't mean much to the Court," Scott pointed out. "It's a legality argument." He paused. "I've looked into the lawyers on this case, and they're top-notch. Really. It's a solid shot, the best we've had in years."

"Well at least there's that going for you," Steve said, though he didn't look very happy about the situation as a whole. "I don't want to see it get as far as it did last time, Scott."

"That's why I wanted to ask you about it," Scott said. "If it took you by surprise as much as it did me, we're playing catch-up already, which will give any opponents a real leg up."

"No kidding," he agreed. "So what do you have in mind at this point?"

Scott let out a sigh as he sat down and gestured for Steve to join him. "There's a few options," he admitted. "Obviously, if things get as bad as they were before, we have contingency plans, but I'd like to  _start_ with a solid showing of unity. Everyone we can get — any chance we can get — coming out hard against that thing." He leaned back. "I know a PR campaign isn't what you had in mind, but it's step one on getting ahead of this when it's already public knowledge before we had the intel."

Steve gave Scott a rueful smile. "It's how I got started, isn't it? At least, as far as the public is concerned."

Scott smirked at that. "Yeah, well, then you'd think we'd be used to it for as long as this has been going on, huh?"

"I think you only get used to it if you're born to it. Look at Tony. That's a guy that knows how to make them pay attention effortlessly."

"That … was the other thing I wanted to ask you about, actually," Scott said. "I thought for sure you would have known about this; the little research I've been able to dig up on the lawyers who aren't Jenny Walters? Puts them on Tony Stark's payroll."

Steve looked honestly shocked. "What?"

"You didn't know?" Scott asked, looking just as surprised. "Apparently, it's been going on pretty much since the thing passed."

"He never said a word," Steve replied, before he paused and frowned to himself. "Are you sure it's Tony?"

"I wouldn't bring you anything I hadn't checked myself," Scott said. "Yeah, I'm sure. And you can bet if I can figure it out, the press can. So you're going to want to talk to your team if they don't know either."

"Yeah, I'll do that," he agreed, then paused. "Who's going that way on rotation?"

"I sent Remy with one of our junior squad, Jana. The girls need to get out more, and with the news today, I thought it might be easier if they got a little time outside the mansion in case things get bad and we need to hunker down for a while, so I've got all of them on the rotations the next few weeks."

"Keeping Logan close, are you?" Steve asked low.

"You really think with the MRD trying to make a comeback, not to mention the rest of the political atmosphere and  _Sabretooth_ …" Scott shook his head. "No, it's a better idea to keep both Logan and K here in case something like this morning surprises us."

"Are you protecting them or keeping them around in case of attack?" Steve asked with a smirk.

Scott let out a breath of a laugh. "Yes," he said, matching his smirk.

Steve scrunched up his face and shook his head with a wince. "Oooh, yeah. Might want to keep that first part to yourself."

"I have been doing this for a little while. I think I've figured that much out for myself."

"Alright, just ... I know how he is, and she might be worse," Steve said with a laugh.

"Don't worry about it; I've already talked with him about sticking close — we do have a few families here, you know," Scott pointed out. "Right now, between our security expert and our resident technopath, this is one of the safest places I can think of."

"Good. I'm really glad to hear it," Steve replied. "So. Politics aside, what are we up against for the next week or so?"

Scott straightened up and grinned. "I was hoping to run a few sims with the team on the MRD — and a few heavier hitters. Not Sabretooth, obviously, not for the junior squad, but I'd love to see you and Captain Marvel put them through their paces." He shrugged. "And if a call comes in, don't be surprised if that all gets derailed. We're dealing with a lot of hate crimes right now, and the team has been busy. You may get to see them in the field."

Steve frowned at that but nodded. "That's not something I want to hear, but … I know it's an issue."

"It's been an issue since I was a kid," Scott said. "That's why the X-Men exist."

"I know," he replied. "I just … was hoping that this stupidity would be behind all of us by now."

"You and me both," Scott agreed before he got to his feet. "In the meantime, let's just focus on making sure these kids know how to defend themselves. I'm sure a lesson from Captain America won't have any trouble getting high attendance."

"And then I'll get picked apart by Logan right behind me," Steve said with a smirk.

Scott just chuckled. "Welcome to the X-Men."

* * *

Neil somehow wasn't surprised to find Leslie Ann in the greenhouse.

He didn't think she'd be out in the woods, which was where she usually hid when she was having a hard time with school or with the team or anything like that. Not today, at least. It had been a year, and she didn't have a problem being in the trees anymore, but on the anniversary… yeah, there was just no way.

"Knock, knock," he called out to her when he spotted her gently tending to a few berry bushes, and she startled, which surprised Neil, because he hadn't exactly been quiet on his way over. He blushed a brilliant neon blue, and she quickly made a shushing motion with her hands to tell him to bring the light level down.

"Don't kill the plants," she said, turning her attention back to the bushes she was tending.

Neil sat down, criss-cross, beside Leslie Ann but didn't say anything for a long while as he watched her with the berry bushes. She'd told him once that she liked doing this kind of work, where she was helping living things to grow and flourish. It was something that she could see the positive results of almost immediately — and plants, she maintained, were so much nicer than people.

"Can I eat any of the berries?" he asked after a long period of silence.

Leslie Ann glanced up at him and then gave him a little smile and a nod. "Sure," she said. "They should be perfectly ripe."

"They always are," he assured her as he popped one of the blackberries in his mouth. He tipped his head to the side as he watched her for a while. "Wanna go somewhere?"

She glanced up at him. "Where?"

"I don't know." He shrugged. "Definitely nowhere with people."

"Definitely not," she agreed.

At her expression, he reached over and covered his hand with hers. "Hey," he said quietly. "Remember how it's not your fault?"

"Yeah, I remember," she said. "Everyone keeps reminding me."

"Only 'cause you look so wilted," he pointed out.

The smallest of smiles touched her expression as she glanced up at him. "Was that… was that a flower joke?"

"Maybe," he said with a casual shrug, though he grinned outright when he saw that her smile was widening, even if she clearly didn't mean it to. "But it's also an accurate description."

She shrugged as she ran her hands over some of the leaves of the bush, and a few more berries grew exactly where he had just picked them to eat. "It's also a really bad pun."

"Got you to smile, though," Neil pointed out.

She let out a breath and shook her head at him. "You always get me to smile, scale breath."

"Flower child," he shot back with an affectionate grin as he bumped her shoulder with his.

She finally let out a real laugh, even if it was quiet. "You're ridiculous."

He grinned in triumph at finally getting the laugh he was aiming for and then leaned forward to kiss her. He'd finally stopped glowing bright blue when they did that, which he thought was a serious achievement, and when they broke apart, she was outright smiling again.

"So," he said. "We could go… I don't know. Put a big, floppy hat on you and some sunglasses or something so we could go into town?"

She shook her head, though she was still smiling. "No," she said. "I really don't feel like going anywhere with people, like I said."

"Well, you've got to get out of the greenhouse or you'll start to become one with the plants."

"I will not," she laughed.

"It's a real concern!" he insisted. "You practically live here already, and seeing as plants are less evil than people, frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if you just moved in, and that would be the end of it. We'd never see you again."

She laughed. "That's not true," she teased. "How could I be an X-Man if I was hidden away in the greenhouse all the time?"

"I don't know; that's why I'm so concerned about it," he shot back, grinning. "And what would the X-Men be without our favorite Amazon? Boring, that's what," he finished for her, since for just a moment, it looked like she might say something else.

"Safer," she said.

"Yeah right." He shook his head. "You've got to stop hanging out with Wolverine  _and_ Cyclops. That is just... messing with your worldview."

"It is not!" she countered, sounding perfectly insulted.

"Oh, it so, so is," he said. "You just can't hear it from the other side." He grabbed another few berries and popped them in his mouth before he broke into a grin. "Perfect, as usual."

She grinned at him and hit him in the arm. "Stop being so nice to me."

"Never," he countered, grinning wider.

She rolled her eyes at him, but she didn't have an argument, and he knew it, so she just got to her feet and dusted off her knees. "So," she said slowly, "you said something about a big, floppy hat?"

He laughed outright and grabbed her hand. "Oh yeah. Master of disguise. We'll be unrecognizable."

* * *

Tony had the music cranked up in his workshop, as usual, and was positively enjoying himself, actually taking a small break for coffee as Boston cranked up in the background. It was rare to catch him at this point, but the guitar solo was always one that he seemed to think required attention that wasn't centered on tools and tinkering.

But the mood was very quickly shattered when he turned halfway through the guitar solo in time to see Steve push through the door with a look that Tony was intimately familiar with.

"Don't touch my music!" Tony shouted.

Steve went to the wall panel where the songs were queued up and did just that, cutting the song off mid-solo as he turned back to glare at Tony. "Were you ever planning on telling the rest of us what you were doing?" he demanded.

"What am I doing?" Tony asked, frowning at him.

Steve tossed him the newspaper that Scott had shown him earlier that day. "How long have you had your legal team on this registration business?"

"Oh, that," Tony said, tossing his rag down on the counter and taking a seat on one of the stools. "It's … been a little while now."

"Practically since the law was passed," Steve said with a little frown. "Why didn't you tell the team? After everything that happened when they first proposed the thing, don't you think we'd have liked to know?"

"I didn't think it was going to go this far, honestly," Tony replied. "And if it did, then … the best counsel possible was already in place. How is this a problem?"

"Because we were blindsided by the news, Tony!" Steve said, exasperated.

"I didn't realize I had to notify you of my legal enterprises, Cap."

"I didn't realize I had to  _ask_ to be notified when it's something this important," Steve shot back.

Tony tossed his hands up for a moment. "How did I screw this one up, exactly? I think I'm going to need cliffnotes — and that's impressive on its own, really."

"Well for one thing, I don't need to tell you that having this kind of surprise  _today_  of all days isn't doing any favors for the Wright family," Steve pointed out.

"In my defense, I didn't pick the date," Tony said in a low, metered tone. "That was on the courts."

"But you knew it was coming up," Steve said.

"In a vague … eventuality kind of way. Last I heard, it was going through review — which can take years."

Steve frowned at Tony for a good, long moment before he finally nodded once. "Congress is already talking about a replacement, Tony. It would have been better to be prepared for this fight," he said at last. "I know I don't need to remind you how badly the last one went."

Tony got up and clapped a hand on Steve's shoulder. "And you should know that it's handled as well as it can be, legally speaking."

"Oh, I know that much," Steve said with a little smirk. "I saw the list. And I read Jenny's arguments."

"Then what are you mad about?" Tony asked, blinking a few times.

"I'd just appreciate a little heads up if we're going to have this fight all over again," Steve said.

"Right. Well, should I let you know that I hired one of those  _dangerous mutants_  as a consultant, too? Is that going to come up sometime soon? Or … hey. I'm going to have Pepper order a pizza …"

Steve rolled his eyes. "You're a grown man, Tony. I don't care what you're having on your pizza."

"That was actually more of a generous offer to add to the order," Tony pointed out before he turned back to his project.

"Who are you hiring?" Steve asked.

"Someone creative."

"I figured as much if they were getting a consulting job," Steve said with a smirk. "I just wondered if it was anyone we knew."

"It is," Tony replied, smirking to himself.

Steve just chuckled and shook his head. "Alright, I'm sure I'll meet him soon enough."

"So sexist, Cap," Tony muttered. "Thought you left that attitude in the forties."

"You mean you found a woman that's not Pepper willing to be around you?" Steve shot back with a grin.

"Turns out, yes," Tony replied with a proud smirk.

"Well, that's a shock all around," Steve chuckled.

"Not if you think about it a little bit," Tony pointed out. "I do have an eye for talent."

"Amongst other things," Steve said.

"Turn the music back on when you go," Tony called out. "And let Pepper know what you and your new Bucky want for dinner when the little Scanner gets here."

"She's an X-Man, Tony; I don't think she's interested in being anyone's sidekick," Steve said with a smirk.

"Of course she's not," Tony said under his breath. "But when are we going to steal one of theirs?"

"Maybe we should build a school," Steve teased. "They seem to be draining all our staff anyway."

"Or … we could just work out a program with them," Tony pointed out. "As I understand it, there will be three schools for them — with just the one focusing on future heroes. Can't have spots for all of the heroic types on the X-Men."

"Maybe I should do the pitch," Steve laughed. "We send you and we'll only come back with the best-looking, most wide-eyed girls."

He stopped and set his tools down to turn to face him again, looking entirely unamused. "How is this a problem?"

Steve just chuckled and shook his head on the way out the door, hitting the "play" button on Tony's music as he did.

* * *

The bar that Azazel found himself in seemed to be fairly typical of the kind of tastes of the man he was looking for, though since the X-Men had seen fit to strip him of his powers, it seemed that he was simply going to have to settle for such alliances for the time being.

He had expected to find Victor Creed a little closer to New York than this, though his own spellwork had come up with several different trails around the country, so this bar in Washington could have simply been a stopover.

But there was no mistaking the huge frame of the man in question, and with a smile that had been won from centuries of deals, Azazel sat down on the stool just to the man's left to order a drink for himself as well.

"I recognize you," Creed said without turning his head. "What do you want?"

"I think you'll find that what I want and what you want are the same thing — for the moment," Azazel said, also without looking Creed's way. "I want revenge on the X-Men."

Creed let out a dark chuckle. "I don't give a damn about that little pack of goodie two shoes."

"You do when Wolverine is with them. And I would like to see him and his little mate gone as well," Azazel said calmly.

"Don't really need your help," Creed said, still not looking his way. "'Specially when you're next to worthless, far as I'm concerned."

Azazel chuckled and shook his head. "I'm not offering my  _help_ ," he said.

"No, you want mine, and I'm not cheap," Victor said without missing a beat.

"I was a king; influence and money are not an issue," Azazel said, waving his hand.

"Awful lotta 'was' in that," Creed drawled out, irritating the ex-demon.

"I simply thought, since we both would like to see them suffer, a temporary deal might be in both our interests."

"What do I get out of this?" Creed asked.

"You'll be paid handsomely — and of course, you'll get Wolverine," Azazel said with a widening smile. "As for what I want …" He grinned. "I want you to get your hands on my son's children. All of them if possible, the two oldest at the very least."

At that, Creed finally turned his way. "I can't say I've ever been big on kidnappin'."

"Oh, come now," Azazel said with a laugh. "You would do it if it suited your needs, and you and I both know that either one of those children would bring your quarry running. Both — or all three? They'll throw themselves into your clutches just to save them."

Creed seemed to weigh it out for a few moments, returning to his beer as he thought it over. "Why don't you just do it yourself?"

"I could," Azazel said thoughtfully. "But I admit, I would prefer to see the demise of Wolverine and his mate myself — so why not do both at once?"

Victor watched him for a moment. "The two of them together is a problem."

"Then let me deal with her," Azazel said with a wave. "Our recent encounter with the X-Men has given me ample ideas, at any rate, and it would be convenient to have her around to hold the little ones until I am through."

Creed let out a little chuckle. "I doubt you can handle that."

"I've been making deals for centuries. Her cooperation for the lives of the children when I'm through is  _more_ than an easy deal. It's practically a third-rate demonic game of boredom."

Finally, Creed smirked at the thought and started to nod his head. "When do we start?"


	2. Mr. Fisk Makes An Appointment

It was no shock when Kate found herself facing down another visit from Wilson Fisk. But for the first time, he'd actually made an appointment, which had at least given Kate a chance to be sure she had the backup she wanted going into it.

For the first time in a very long time, she showed up to the office that day with both Kurt and K in tow, and, again for the first time, K didn't bother with the usual business attire, already deciding that there was no need to put up appearances when all the players knew the score.

As it was, Fisk was sure to arrive a few minutes early with his substantial entourage in tow — all of them armed to the teeth, and all of them wary of every single person in the building as they made their way to the boss's office.

"You know, I know we don't get along, but unless you're here to start something, there is literally no reason for your bodyguards to be so scared of me and mine," Kate said as she gestured for Fisk and Wesley to take the two seats she had in her office.

"That was not my intention at all," Fisk replied as he made himself as comfortable as he was able. "But I'm sure you can see now — judging by the amount of back-ups you have in place — that more than one is a smart move."

"One is my husband," Kate pointed out. "And you and I both know I really just need the one secretary for protection — but he's a little protective."

"And I know full well that she's no secretary," Fisk replied shortly.

"Actually, she is," Kate said. "I hired her officially years back. She even does my mail."

"I don't do shorthand though," K said, waving the tips of her fingers, though Fisk barely acknowledged her.

"Then you have both eccentric and amazingly strict hiring guidelines."

"I'll agree to half of that," Kate said with a smirk before she folded her hands in front of herself. "Thank you for making an appointment, Mr. Fisk. I appreciate the consideration. It's a refreshing change of pace."

"I just wanted to check in after that little incident in Hollywood," Fisk said calmly. "Most unfortunate."

Kate didn't give anything away as she shrugged. "It alerted me to the need for even tighter security ahead of the movie release. As you can see, I took those lessons to heart."

"Nonetheless, my offer still stands."

"I appreciate it," Kate said. "And I appreciate your interest in my safety. Especially the  _conveniently-_ timed limo ride in Hollywood. But like I said, I can take care of myself — and I'm not interested in owing you bus change, let alone anything else."

"I think you'll find, Mrs  _Wagner,_  that often times it's not what you want that comes to pass but whatever it takes to make the status quo remain that really matters. The situation  _will_ eventually resolve itself, and one way or another, I plan to be there when it does."

"I didn't take this company as far as I have and build it up to what it is by sticking to the status quo, Mr. Fisk, but I appreciate the antiquated business advice," Kate replied with a little glare. "I'm sure that's why you are always looking to buy out other people — innovation builds companies up, and you're still living twenty years in the past."

He smirked and shook his head. "Tried and true practices are what have put me where I am today," he replied. "And they still hold up perfectly well, in the boardroom, anyhow." He gave her a tight smile that did not reach his eyes. "Be careful out there, Mrs. Wagner. It's a dangerous world." As he stood up, he reached into his inner jacket pocket and removed an envelope that he dropped on her desk. "I'm sure we'll talk again soon."

Kate didn't stand to see Fisk and Wesley out — and K was doubly sure that none of his men stayed where they weren't wanted on the way out. Once they were gone, Kate at last leaned back in her chair and let out a sigh as she pulled the envelope across the desk.

"We're almost getting civil with each other. It's unsettling," Kate muttered, half to herself and half to Kurt.

"On what alternate dimension was that civil?" K asked, watching the men leave through the glass of the office.

"He came to my office on a schedule and everything," Kate said distractedly,still frowning at the envelope. "K… can you…?"

She shook her head without even touching the envelope. "That thing is doused in lavender. And it's strong. I don't smell any lingering human scents or anything dangerous. Won't guarantee it, though." She looked up at her. "Want me to open it for you?"

Kate handed it over. "Alright. Just to be safe."

K picked up the letter opener on the desk and sliced the top of the envelope open, frowning at the embossed slip of paper inside. "It's an invitation."

Kate held her hand out for it. "To what? Because I gotta tell you, nothing Fisk throws can compare to going to the Oscars with Kamala…"

She let out a little laugh. "It's an invitation to the Hellfire Club." K held up the paper so Kate could see it herself.

Kate stared for a moment and then snatched the embossed paper out of K's hand so she could see it closer up. "...why?" she finally asked in a soft tone, clearly confused.

"Probably to keep a closer eye on you," Kurt pointed out. "We have a few involuntary members you can speak to."

"Involuntary… so what, I can't just tell them to stick it?"

"So they were awarded memberships, and they don't just disappear," Kurt told her. "Warren and Betsy are in it through familial ties. Storm was granted a membership …"

"I don't want it," Kate said, setting the paper down.

"An invitation to attend one of their meetings is not an invitation to join," Kurt pointed out.

"Good." Kate shook her head. "I don't want to join. I don't want to go to a meeting. I don't  _want_ …" She trailed off, shook her head, and ran a hand through her hair. "What's Fisk doing with an invite like this anyway? Trying to throw me off his scent onto theirs or…?" She examined the invitation. "This guy is a gigantic pain in my butt."

"Maybe ask Scott about it," K suggested. "I'm sure he's got things to say and opinions on the matter."

"Yeah, well, see, I'd ask Scott if I wanted to give him more heart problems — but since I don't want to do that…" Kate said with a little smirk.

K drew in a deep breath and rolled her eyes up to stare at the ceiling. "Yes. but I would like to point out that if you don't tell  _Dad_ what's going on, he's going to lose his marbles and have an infarction. Which means you'll kill him dead, and it'll all be your fault. Forever."

"You are so dramatic," Kate said, rolling her eyes right back.

"She's not wrong," Kurt chuckled.

Kate let out a sigh and dropped back into her seat, examining the invitation in silence for a long, quiet moment. "Maybe I should go," she said quietly. "Just… see who's in the Club. What they're up to…. We haven't seen them since the Purple Man thing, really."

"Don't even think about it unless you can bring a plus one or fit a bamf in your purse," K pointed out. "I heard about the last time the X-Men had to deal with the Hellfire Club here in the city. There was firebird involvement."

"There was firebird involvement for the Purple Man thing too," Kate said.

"Yes, but at least Logan wasn't crawling his way up a sewer to get to the good guys," Kurt pointed out.

"I could bring Billy," Kate offered. "He's got his 'you can't see me' spell thing that makes you nonexistent. He could hide backup or nine."

"She's got the gumshoes on," K whispered to Kurt.

Kurt smirked K's way. "What was your first clue?"

"It's not a bad idea!" Kate insisted. "You know the timing on this  _can't_ be a coincidence. The movie and the courts and the fact that Emma just got her butt handed to her last month. You know they're looking our way —  _everyone_ is looking our way right now."

"Your way," K pointed out. "They are looking your way— and maybe looking for payback to Annie, of all people."

"Annie will kick Emma's butt if she so much as shows her face in the same state as her or Scott," Kate said, waving her hand. "I mean, is Emma even part of the Club anymore?"

"Emma is the White Queen," K replied. "They will cover her ass."

"Emma is depowered and got her butt handed to her by, in her own words, a frumpy housewife."

"Once a White Queen, always a White Queen," K replied, her arms crossed. "The woman has influence."

"Which is what they're after with me," Kate said, gesturing at the invitation. "And what Fisk is after... " She paused as she considered things. "If this MRD movie does as well as we think it will, Bishop Publishing breaks the ten billion mark. In case you were wondering how big the target is. Eight figures."

"I wasn't," K replied.

"I got the numbers just before the thing with Kamala, which I doubt was a coincidence," Kate said.

"We can have Rachel do a few scans," Kurt suggested.

"Probably a good idea," Kate admitted. She let out a breath before she glanced to Kurt with a slightly more open expression. "You heard what he said about the board, didn't you?" she asked softly.

"I did," he said, nodding as he said so. "I'm not sure if that was a veiled threat or a poor choice of words."

"That's my problem too," she admitted. She rubbed a hand over her face. "I'm not sorry I'm doing what I'm doing, but if I'd known I was going to call down this  _much_ trouble, I'd have, I don't know, taken a preemptive vacation for my own sanity before we moved forward on all this."

"No way to predict the future," Kurt said gently.

"Still." She let out a breath and then picked up the invitation. "This is going to bug me until we get it figured out. Think you could take us back to Westchester? We can chat with a Summers or two — and I can pick out a Evil Meeting dress."

"I'm sure I can manage to take two beautiful women home with me," Kurt teased, putting an arm around both of them before he teleported them both back to the school in an instant.

Almost as soon as they were there, Kate ducked out from underneath Kurt's arm with a grin and a two-fingered salute. "I'm gonna go find the boss man," she said, already headed down the hall to Scott's office — since he was there sorting admissions and other stuff for the schools more often than not.

And he was, in fact, sorting when Kate burst in with a wide and confident smile. "I have a plan, boss man!"

Scott didn't even look up. "Is it as good as the time you tried to convince Sinister you were pregnant?"

" _No_ ," Kate said, shaking her head as she dropped into the seat in front of his desk. "This is a great plan, Scott." She waved the embossed invitation in front of him to get his attention.

"Where the hell did you get that?" Scott asked with a frown.

"Kingpin gave it to me," Kate told him. "I'm a bad guy magnet lately, apparently."

"It was bound to happen sooner or later, I'm sure," Scott deadpanned.

"I  _am_ a Hawkeye," Kate pointed out, grinning wider. "Anyway, boss man, point is, the bad guys literally invited me to their living room, and I was thinking  _maaaaybe_ it would be nice if we knew who all the players were and what they were up to instead of having to get blindsided and attacked all the time?"

He tipped his head to the side and narrowed his eyes at her. "Have you been talking to K?"

"Umm, yes, she's one of my best friends in the world, why?"

"And did she tell you about her plan to deal with Creed? Because that sounds an awful lot like the same plan."

"Bring the fight to Creed, yeah, I heard about that. This is just a straight-up stakeout-from-the-inside plan."

"While bringing it to them at the first sign of any real trouble," Scott said, looking entirely unamused.

"Well they literally brought it on themselves," she said, waving the invitation. "They are  _asking_ for it, Scott. They are  _inviting_ trouble. It's just… it's just got to be done."

He cleared off a few papers so he had ample room to lean on his desk before he gestured for her to go on. "Alright. Tell me all about it."

"Which part — the invitation part with Kingpin or the part where I go find out who needs their butts kicked the worst?"

Scott let out a weary sigh and covered his face with one hand. "Kate."

"Well, it's a legitimate question: do you want a debrief or a pre-mission brief?"

"I want a solid plan with contingencies in place before you go in there and get yourself killed."

Kate waved a hand. "They don't want me dead. At least, Kingpin doesn't, and he delivered the invitation."

"I want something more concrete from you first, please. For your safety and Kurt's and your kids' sanity."

Kate's teasing smile slipped into something slightly more serious as she straightened up. "Kurt already said I should have backup. I was thinking I'd ask Billy. He's got that 'no one can see me' business going on."

"See? Already, this is more of a plan than you were letting on," Scott pointed out.

"Like I'd come here with 'Scott, I want to be live bait'. You're an old man. I wouldn't do that to you."

He raised an eyebrow. "Like you've never done that before?"

"Yeah, but you're old now. I'd at  _least_ say 'Scott, I want to be live bait with a bamf'."

"I'm not that old, and you're older too, big sis."

"He-e-e-y." She leveled one finger at him with her nose wrinkled up. "K told you, didn't she? I didn't tell you; I know  _that_."

He couldn't help but smirk at her. "She said I needed cheering up."

"Well, you had a pretty rough January," Kate said with a smirk. She paused. "And… that's part of why I want to go. If Emma's back with the Hellfire Club, wouldn't you want to know if they were making moves?"

He let out a sigh at that and reluctantly nodded. "I can have Rachel figure that out without going in," he pointed out.

"So how come you haven't just sent in our resident firebird to deal with the Hellfire Club whenever they pop up?"

"She's having some issues with control right now," Scott said. "Nothing major — unless she's trying too hard. But, frankly, sending her spying goes against our agenda to keep  _out_ of people's heads if we can."

"Yeah, I saw the smoke from Rachel's room. And America was teasing  _me_ about pregnancy symptoms," Kate said with a little nod. "C'mon, Scott. Let me go in and get the intel so Rachel doesn't have to poke around in the creepy heads."

"Talk to your secretary about a few new revolutionary tech developments to take with you — and come back with at least three solid extraction plans that don't involve powers."

Kate smiled and gave him a two-fingered salute. "You got it, boss man."


	3. Daken (Sort Of) Helps

"So," K said as Kate made herself comfortable. "Did you get past Papa Scott?"

"He tried to poke as many holes in the plan as he could, but… surprisingly…"

"So he managed a few," K teased. "How big are they?"

"Mostly, I need a better extraction plan than 'I have grappling arrows and the Cuckoos have faces just asking to be stepped on for chandelier-swinging leverage'."

"Well that's gotta be the best way out," K agreed, tipping her head Kate's way as she saluted her with her mug. "Make sure you wear stilettos in such a situation."

"Oh, for sure," Kate agreed. "And I was thinking of doing my hair up with chopsticks. You know. The pointy kind."

"Anything special about them or are they  _just_ pointy?"

"Just pointy — though Scott did say you had a few tech things I should maybe possibly ask to borrow?"

"Oh, well, Q and I have been playing," K said with a smirk.

"Do you call him that to his face?" Kate asked with a grin.

K raised an eyebrow at her and crossed her arms. "What do you think?"

"I think you do, but now I'm wondering if he'll do the accent…"

"Of course I do," she laughed. "And of  _course_ he does. Logan hates it. It's fun."

"So… does that make you Moneypenny if you're outfitting me?" Kate teased.

"No, no," K laughed. "That's more Pepper's game. I'm just directing you to the guy with the toys."

Kate grinned. "Well, I've got a few days before the invite comes up… let's play."

"Let's go crash the lab, then," K suggested. "He'll love it."

* * *

Kate was totally prepared to knock outside the lab once they arrived, but K keyed in a few codes of her own, and Kate just laughed. "You steal them or did he tell you what they were?"

"He gave it to me on his own," K told her with a smirk. "I'm down here enough, apparently."

The two of them slipped inside, and once the door was open, the music was crazy loud — which only meant that Tony was working hard. K turned and gave Kate a little smirk before she slipped around behind Tony to tap him on the shoulder where he couldn't see her coming up on him. Just to make him startle.

"Hard to hear anything when you have it pegged, smart guy. Anyone could sneak up on you."

He gave her a dry look and turned the music down. "'Anyone' meaning you and Pepper," he pointed out. "Since pretty much everyone else will turn the music down when they show up."

K shrugged one shoulder up and slid into the seat next to him. "Got a last-minute project if you're bored." She tipped her chin toward Kate and waved her over. "Big sis has a plan she needs some toys for."

Kate waved with the tips of her fingers. "I need a way to escape a room full of bad guys that doesn't rely on powers."

"What do you say, Q?" K said, smiling Kate's way past Tony's shoulder.

He looked Kate up and down as the smile started to reappear, and he put on his very worst English accent. "I say it's time we arm the girl." He ended his statement with a string of gibberish that neither of them could translate as he began pulling out all kinds of tiny gadgetry. "What are you thinking? Shockers? Bombs? Gas? Grenades? We got it all."

"I definitely could use something with gas," Kate said, grinning at his enthusiasm. "And do you have anything with an EMP or something I could use to short out  _their_ tech?"

He let out a laugh. "Do  _I_ have EMPS…." He kept giggling for a moment. "I have everything, sweetheart."

"Great," Kate said. "I need it small, something I can slip past the bad guys…"

At that, Tony turned to K with a grin. "Did you show her our stuff yet?" But when K shook her head slowly, Tony's grin just widened. "Do you prefer silver or gold?"

"Silver goes best with my wardrobe," Kate replied.

"Of course, why did I even ask," he said, clapping his hands on his thighs before he crossed the room and started going through a few padded boxes that looked almost military if not for the velvet linings inside. "You have a few options. I made these for K — she never did say what sneaky derring-do she had lined up, but … I'm pretty sure jewelry works from one woman to the next." He held up a jeweled filigree necklace with sapphire stones set in it. "It's not purple, but every one of those jewels will erupt into a gas if you throw it on the ground. I'd advise holding your breath before you do that. And throw hard. It should knock out everyone that breathes it in — and it will fill a 1900-square foot space in less than two seconds."

Kate grinned widely at that. "I think I've got a deep purple dress that would look good with it too."

Tony smirked at her and then moved on to a delicate-looking bracelet. He opened the clasp to show her how it came apart. "EMP. Too small to ping any radars but mine — and only the ones in this lab. No power source until you activate it, breaks a small cell inside the mechanism, and—" He made a gesture with his hands that suggested an explosion. "No more tech for them."

"You're the best, Q," Kate said with a grin.

"Hey. Prove you can work it before you use the secret spy handle," Tony teased.

"Like I could be a spy. I'm more PI material," Kate teased right back.

"Designed by a spy for spies," Tony pointed out.

"Alright," Kate said, waving him over. "Lemme see it. We'll go over it a time or seven before I go hang out with bad guys for dinner."

"Don't forget these," K said, pulling out the last pieces to the matched set — a pair of stud earrings that looked sparkly and elegant, with the smallest drop to them. "Your explosives. Twist the gemstone to activate it. Can't have anyone hitting you in the head and accidentally blowing it off."

"My head thanks you for the foresight," Kate smirked, grinning as Tony gleefully took her through how to operate all the tiny little gadgets so she could be properly prepared.

* * *

That weekend, Kate arrived at the upscale, lavish, totally invite-only party wearing one of her best purple dresses as well as stilettos and all of the jewelry tech that Tony and K had created for her. Oh, and she had Billy just waiting for the first sign of trouble, hanging out invisibly nearby — as close as he could get without being detected, and then closer if there  _was_ trouble, he promised.

The invitation got her inside, and from there, she somehow wasn't surprised to spot three of the same creeps from the last time they'd faced the Hellfire Club — the big guy, Sebastian Shaw; as well as his vampire friend, Selene; and, of course,  _that woman_ , as Annie called her. Kate glanced around the room … the fourth person was someone she vaguely recognized from way back when she first joined up. Donald Pierce. And the fifth…

"Ummm." She couldn't help the look that was half disappointed and half disbelieving when she saw Daken.

He was leaning against the bar, drinking a martini and generally watching the crowd, though he was clearly watching her, even if he didn't approach her.

"I'm surprised you showed," Emma Frost said from almost directly behind her.

Kate spun to face her and then broke into a smile that she liked to call her "Hawkeye charm." "Hey," she said with a shrug, "what better way to find out what's up than to, you know, ask?"

"What on  _earth_ makes you think anything is ..  _up_?" Emma nearly sneered, looking down her nose at Kate. "I thought you went to prep school. Clearly, you weren't allowed to stay there."

"Lies," Kate said. "I even played the cello."

"Then it certainly wasn't a school of note."

"And I'm sure you went somewhere that taught how to take a beating from a housewife," Kate said with a wicked smirk.

Emma narrowed her eyes at her and raised one eyebrow. "We learned to have those beneath us deal with scuffles like that. Obviously."

"Obviously. What was the time on that fight again? Two minutes?"

"I honestly don't know or care," Emma replied.

"I'm just surprised you didn't last a  _little_ longer… I mean, didn't you  _teach_ X-Men for a while?"

"Not to act like boorish brutes," Emma countered. "I'm sure you're well aware that position was filled long ago."

"By someone much better qualified," Kate said with a nod.

"As a brute? Absolutely," Emma said with an icy smile before she turned on her heel. "I'm afraid I have more worthwhile guests to attend to, not washed out little human wannabe X-Men. Enjoy the party."

Kate stuck her tongue out at Emma once her back was turned. "At least  _I'm_ an X-Man," she muttered, shaking out her head. "Bimbo."

Across the way, Selene was obviously watching her, but she didn't seem any more friendly than Emma, and frankly, Kate was happy when the woman didn't bother to come and talk to her. Instead, Kate found herself a glass of champagne that was more a prop than anything else — she was  _not_ going to drink anything in this place — and sat down by Sunspot, who she basically just recognized by name and face and not much else. She was hedging her bets on whether that was better or worse than Emma or Selene, but this  _was_ an intel-gathering thing, after all.

But unlike Emma, who had at least come to insult Kate, Sunspot just ignored her, taking his drink elsewhere, and Kate frowned after him. "Rude. I was  _invited_ ," she grumbled. "What is even the point of sending an invite you don't want answered?"

She really, really didn't want to talk to Selene, and she wasn't sure what the heck Daken was doing there, so really the only "big" names she saw were Sebastian Shaw and Donald Pierce. And Pierce just wasn't going to happen either, because the second she got within a few feet of him, he sneered at her like he smelled something horrible and turned the other way.

"Okay," she muttered to herself, "I am feeling decidedly  _not_ like a guest."

"I could fix that," Daken told her from a few spots down the bar.

"Yeah, well, a conversation at this point would be a step up. What's the point of getting a party invite if no one wants you at the party?"

"I didn't think you were so hard up for invites that you'd go to one you knew wasn't going to be friendly," he said watching her look around the room warily. "Who's your date?"

"Nobody here, that's for sure," she said, pulling a face.

"There is no way that you're here alone," Daken drawled out.

"Yeah? Prove it," Kate said with her chin thrust out.

He gestured around the room and pointed toward the nearest picture window. "No, there is no way that Nightcrawler would let you come here all alone. Either you have someone undetectable in here — and if that's the case, congratulations — or you've got them waiting outside for you to mewl like a lost little kitten."

Kate shrugged. "I don't do lost kitten."

"Right," he said, nodding as he picked up a pair of martinis and slid one her way. "Some kind of wounded bird, then."

"Only if anybody tries anything — and so far…" She gestured around the room. "It's like in elementary school when you get invited to play just so you can be the butt of the joke."

"You're not the butt of any joke," he told her.

"No, I'm sure it's no joke," Kate said. "And I'm sure the fact that my company's hitting big time has  _nothing_ to do with the sudden interest."

"That's all it is," Daken admitted. "They'll lose interest. In the meantime, you actually showed to their party and acknowledged their power."

"I was curious," Kate said.

"I'm sure you were." He smirked. "Although you couldn't make it more obvious that you're scouting around if you tried."

Kate let out a sigh and rolled her eyes. "They know I'm an X-Man. We're all aware of the score."

"Yes, and last they checked, the score left Miss Frost with a fractured nose, among other things," he said with an amused tone.

"You should've seen it. It was the most one-sided thing I've ever seen. Annie was  _so mad_ ," Kate said, breaking into an honest grin for the first time since she'd arrived.

"So the score remains  _haus frau_ two and White Queen zero."

Kate leaned forward and dropped her voice. "Why do you think I came? If Emma's holding a grudge — and I know she is — I wanna know who might come for my favorite cook."

He let out a little laugh and took the olives out of his drink. "And you think they'd share with you their dark and twisted plans?"

"I have a face that people like to monologue to," Kate said with a shrug.

"Do you now?" he asked, shifting to look at her a little better.

"I really, really do," Kate said. "Mostly because nobody thinks I'm a threat. And I'm cute." She grinned his way. "It's a winning combo."

"Hmm," he said, picking up his drink again. "I don't see it."

"Well, do you have anything to monologue about? Because if the urge isn't there, then there's no point to it."

"I'm sure I could come up with something if I was compelled," he replied. "Which I am not. And neither, apparently, were any of the bigwigs in charge."

"Well, they're all ignoring me. And I'm  _not_ playing nice with Emma, so…"

"So you're looking at a long, lonely night with no fun at all — and you've yet to touch your drink."

"Pretty much," Kate said with a sigh. "Is it bad I was kind of hoping this was more of a trap and there would be bad guys to punch?"

"I always wish it was more of a trap," he replied frankly. "Instead, I'm left to play with them and see who I can push over the edge. It's boring, really. Like shooting fish in a barrel."

"Well, I hate to break it to you, but you picked a bunch of unstable lunatics. The edge is already there. You put the game settings on 'easy'."

He smirked at that and nodded his head. "To be honest, I prefer the west coast. More to work with there."

"Yeah, I worked there for a while before I was an X-Man. I loved it."

He nodded and finished his drink before leaning closer to her. "Try not to look so doe-eyed and obvious about your fishing trip and you'll probably yield better results."

She grinned at him. "Thanks for the tip. Usually, the doe-eyed look  _helps_."

"Not here," he pointed out. "They eat doe-eyed for lunch."

"I'm starting to realize that, yeah," Kate said with a nod, then shrugged. "I can play hardball."

"Aim higher," Daken said at barely a whisper. "Mightier than thou and above it all. Don't wait for Shaw to approach. Get bored and act as though you're ready to leave."

She saluted him with her drink. "Excuse me, Daken, but I have to pretend you've insulted me now so I can be bored and pouty," she said as she got to her feet, shot him the most insulted look she could manage, and swept off to go sit with her drink alone — not that she had to fake the part of being bored as fifteen long minutes dragged by before she pushed her drink to the edge of the counter and hopped down from her seat for the door.

"The party is just getting started, Mrs. Wagner," a deep voice said through a small gathering of people — that promptly parted to accommodate the man walking her way.

Since the Hawkeye charm wasn't getting her anywhere, Kate went for the kind of look she'd had practice giving Fisk lately, one hand on her hip. "I don't stay where I'm not wanted, invite or no."

The man sized her up quickly, eyes narrowed. "Then I take it you learned what you came for then, Hawkeye?"

"My curiosity is more or less sated," she said.

"As is mine," he replied.

"Maybe we'll compare notes sometime."

"I doubt that somehow," he replied with a small smile that did not reach his eyes in the least.

"True. I doubt my secretary would let you in. She keeps out the riff-raff so well," Kate said.

"If her husband couldn't stop me, I can promise you she couldn't either." He tipped his head her way. "Good night."

She waved her hand. "Good night. Next time you decide to send a meaningless invitation and forget all your manners and social niceties, don't do it to me.  _I_ was raised with some class."

"Which you completely threw out the window when you moved to Westchester," he countered. "Don't worry; we won't waste the ink again." With a quick motion, Shaw turned on his heel and strode off, back to his party, and without a backward glance at her — though when she looked, Daken was still smirking her way as he lifted his glass in a little salute.

Kate was honestly a little steamed as she left the party and headed home, so she startled the slightest bit when Billy appeared in the passenger seat of her car.

"How much of that was you?" Billy asked.

"What?" she asked, one hand on her heart to show how much he'd surprised her.

"Back there, in the Hellfire Club," he said, smirking at her. "How much of that was you and how much of that was Daken? Do you even know?"

She frowned at her friend and shook her head. "No, no. Daken promised his dad he wouldn't use his powers on me and Kurt."

"Then he lied," Billy pointed out. "Because he absolutely used his powers on you tonight."

Kate's frown deepened as she thought about it. "Okay… but those zingers were all me," she insisted.

"But you did exactly as he suggested," Billy said. "He played you."

Kate pulled to a stop at a red light and crossed her arms, glaring Billy's way for a long moment before she let out a breath and rested her head on the steering wheel. "Literally everybody in that place is the worst."

"Um … yeah, you knew that from the start."

"Yeah, but I was expecting a little more… I don't know…"

"A miracle?"

"I got a freaking  _invitation_!" she said, throwing up her hands.

"So you never got invited to the mean girls' birthday party?"

"C'mon, Billy; you knew me in high school. I roasted the mean girls," she teased right back.

"Yeah, I know," he said with a little laugh before he leaned back. "You know he was helping, right?"

"What?"

"Getting you out of the room on your own two feet." Billy shrugged. "Took  _me_ by surprise, actually. The most likely future I was seeing involved a lot more fighting."

"Huh." She frowned down at the ground for a moment as she digested that information. It wasn't like it was the first time Daken had been helpful, but it was a little jarring knowing he'd also played her at the same time.

"Did you get anything out of that, at least?" he asked, shaking his head at her. "Aside from Daken lying, that is. Which should be a measuring stick of how awful a crowd is when Daken is the best person in the room."

"Right?" Kate blew out her breath. "Well… I've got names of everyone involved… and Daken  _did_ say that the score for Annie versus Emma was considered to be way imbalanced. But I think…" She sighed. "That ... that right there was just the big sharks sticking their nose into the boat to see if it's edible." She grinned up at Billy. "And I think I made a pretty good case for at least not being edible, right?"

He smiled her way. "Time will tell."

"Okay, that's the Demiurge answer. How about we get ice cream and you act like Billy and tell me how hilarious I am," Kate said, rolling her eyes.

"Best idea I've heard all night."


	4. Busted Up Howlett

Jessica Drew had invited anyone in the super hero circuit that had kids to Gerry's eighth birthday party — as well as a few kids from Gerry's school that he was good friends with — so it was a veritable zoo at her place as both Natasha and Clint were helping her to manage the small swarm of little ones when it came to party hats and party games.

It was the middle of March, but there had been a cold snap, so there was a good deal of snow on the ground — and when the kids were all hyped up on cake and ice cream, that was where they got sent. Out into the snow to make snow angels and play with each other.

The oldest heroes' kids were all out there — though a few of the youngest ones that had come were already tired out by all the playing, and were staying with their parents for much-needed naps. Everyone else was busily building snow forts to get ready for an epic snowball fight.

"It needs to be taller here," Charlie told Sying as they worked on their fort. "Or people can throw over it."

"People can throw over it all the time anyway because it doesn't have a roof," Sying pointed out, even though he was building up the fort on that side for her. "You just gotta find the right angles."

"And have a good throwing arm," Gerry broke in, grinning as he wound up his shoulder like a baseball pitcher and threw a hardball of snow right into a tree at the top speed of an eight-year-old who had been practicing — and who had his mom's super strength. "Mom said I could go out for baseball this summer as long as I can hold back and not break a baseball bat when I pitch," he said proudly.

"You're gonna be really good," Charlie agreed, sizing up the snow splatter on the nearby tree — and the serious dent in the bark.

"I've been practicing," he said, drawing himself up.

"I'm learning how to swim," Sying put in. "I'm gonna live where the ocean is and go swimming all the time."

"I'm gonna miss you a lot when you live by the ocean," Charlie told the little half-Kree, who beamed and shook his head at her.

"Nu-uh, you won't, because my mom already promised we were gonna visit  _all_ the time so I can see all my friends," Sying said seriously.

"I'm glad, because I don't think I would like it if my mom moved me," Gerry said with a little nod. "I like all my friends from my school and from the Avengers and stuff."

"Well, our house is  _really_ busy right now," Charlie explained diplomatically. "We have  _way_ too many people in there."

"Yeah, Elin hates it," Sying said, his nose scrunched up as he pulled a face to illustrate the kind of hatred that Elin was feeling toward the place in general, gesturing toward where Elin was with the group of kids on the  _other_ side of the yard building  _their_ snow fort.

Across the yard, one of the boys from Gerry's class was having some fun with the kids from Xaviers, totally enjoying meeting the new-to-him kids — and almost as cheerful and friendly as Gerry was. Krissy was very sure to keep him company, and to her delight, he was  _nothing_ like the kids that were in her Kindergarten glass.

In fact, Sam thought her tail was cool. And he was big enough that he could hold her by the hands and spin with her so fast her feet went off the ground. She was giggling madly, and every time that they took a break, he'd make sure she didn't fall into the snow.

It was a growing trend, too. The other boy from Gerry's class was doing the same thing with the other kids, though he wasn't stuck on just  _one_ of the smaller kids. "Alex, what are you  _doing_?" Gerry called out as he took Elin's hands in his.

"We're spinning — like flying, just … lower," Alex called back.

"You gotta try it!" Zoe called out to her big brother as she tried to rope Chance into spinning her, though she was almost as tall as he was and he looked a little unsure about it.

"I'm bigger than you, Zo — I can't  _get_ spun!" Gerry shot back.

Alex gave Elin a little smile. "Ready?" She nodded and smiled back at him — and with a big lurch, she found herself spinning almost straight out as Alex tried to get her going a little faster than what he'd done for Zoe a few turns back. It was going fine — right up until he stepped a little outside of where he'd been spinning and slipped in the snow.

He was apologizing before they even hit the ground, but it didn't help matters when a loud crack echoed the yard and Elin looked sick for a moment before she simply started to  _cry._ She didn't even try to sit up, and she was holding her arm to her chest.

A few of the kids who had seen what happened rushed over — Chance looking upset and Gerry looking almost determined as he pushed his way to where Elin was. "Did you hurt your arm?" he gasped out, not as out of breath from running as Chance was, since he was a little stronger and faster anyway.

She nodded her head but flinched back when Chance tried to touch her shoulder, nearly hyperventilating by that point.

"We gotta get Dr. Fuzzy and Lifeguard," Gerry said seriously as Chance just looked more and more upset when Elin was still crying — he'd never seen her cry like that.

"I'll go tell the grown-ups," Sying said, zipping off with little poofs of snow in his wake for how fast he was moving. The kids knew when he'd reached them, because a second later, Kurt teleported into the middle of the scene, crouching down beside Elin with a look of alarm as the kids made space, all wide-eyed and trying to tell the story at the same time.

"It's broken," Gerry reported helpfully. "Just like mine was — remember?" He gave Elin a sympathetic look. "It's okay. Lifeguard and Dr. Fuzzy will fix you up no problem!"

She didn't look like she believed him in the least as she buried her face in Kurt's shoulder. "Let's get you to Hank,  _Schatzi_ ," Kurt told her gently in a low tone before he teleported out of there with her, leaving the anxious kids in his wake. As soon as the smoke cleared to show that they were in Hank's lab, Kurt called out, "Henry, if I could borrow you and Tyler for a moment. Elin had a nasty spill," keeping his voice as calm and even as he could, even though his tail was swishing nervously behind him.

Elin looked up at him and gave him a kiss on the cheek, then snuggled back in while Hank rushed over, stopping short when he saw how she was holding her arm. "Oh, my stars," he whispered out. "What happened here?"

"A small accident at Gerry's birthday party while everyone was playing in the snow," Kurt explained.

"What do you think, Tyler? X-rays first?" Hank asked with a little smile.

Tyler looked Elin over and nodded. "Betcha I can find where my dad keeps the chocolate Twinkies while you're doing that," he told her.

"No, thank you," she said quietly. "I don't feel very good."

"No, but you'll feel just fine soon, I promise," he said with a smile as Kurt followed Hank down to where the X-ray machine was.

Kurt kept snuggling her well after the results came in, though he was a little more upset when he realized that Hank and Tyler were discussing knocking her out to fix her arm.

"It's a little more complicated than it could be," Hank explained to Kurt as the two of them made their way over with the meds. "She didn't just break her arm but all three claws as well."

Kurt frowned and snuggled Elin a little more at that. "Ah," he said, his tail switching behind him with a little more energy than before.

"You can hold her for the whole thing, if you like," Hank offered.

"Yes, I think I would," Kurt said with a little nod.

Hank nodded and gave Elin a little liquid to take, then gave her a shot to take away some of the pain. "We'll knock her out in a little while," Hank said. "Give the meds a chance to kick in first."

It wasn't long with the shot that Elin simply got very, very sleepy — but she clearly didn't want to go to sleep and instead spent as much time as she could shifting how she was sitting like she couldn't get comfortable." All it really did was make Kurt more nervous until Hank returned to knock her out properly.

As soon as the little girl was completely out, Tyler got to work. He only took Elin from Kurt for a moment once he was finished for another X-Ray and then promptly returned her to him — totally limp and finally healed up. "It'll be a little while before she wakes up," Tyler told him. "We could just lay her down if you need to get back."

Kurt held onto Elin a little tighter. "We should let Logan know."

"He won't be back for a few hours," Hank told him. "He and K headed out to run through the Chicago school for Scott."

Kurt let out a sigh and then rearranged how he was holding Elin so that he could get comfortable. "Kate will make sure everyone gets home; she was leading the singalong on the way there," he said with an affectionate smile. "If you don't mind, I'd like to wait here."

"Why would we mind?" Hank said with a warm smile. "I can call Kate if you'd like."

"Please," Kurt said, curling up with the sleeping little girl as Tyler sat down by the two of them with a smile.

* * *

Kate, meanwhile, had the harder time of things: she had the kids from Xaviers all keyed up after Elin's accident and worried about their friend. Chance was impossible to wrangle for a good long while as he simply couldn't stay still, and even after she finally got everyone together, he was asking to go  _faster_.

"We should just go with the bamfs," Chance said with his arms crossed.

"They're playing with my little brother and your little sister and everybody," Krissy pointed out, patting his arm. "Helping Peterquill. Papa says it's a big job."

"We can borrow  _one_ ," Chance insisted.

"They're little people too," Krissy said, crossing her arms to match his sulky glare. "You can't just tell them what to do like they're not."

Chance let out a loud, long sigh. "When are we gonna get  _home_?"

"Really soon, I promise," Kate said, already pushing it on speed as she looked in the rearview at the collection of kids. "Charlie, how about you pick what movie we start with for our driving music songs?" she asked, hoping to distract them.

"I don't  _wanna_ singalong," Chance protested.

"Chance, Elin is fine. She's with Kurt, and you know he took her to go see Tyler and Hank," Kate said reasonably.

"Yeah, but what if it hurt?" Chance asked, totally sincere. "It could have! It hurts grown-ups when Tyler heals them!"

"Only if he does it while we're in the field, sweetie," Kate promised. "It really doesn't hurt in the lab where Dr. Fuzzy has sweets and things to make sure you don't feel anything."

"But what if it did?" Chance insisted.

"Dr. Fuzzy's not going to let Elin hurt."

"But she doesn't like sweets!" Chance said.

"Then she doesn't have to have sweets," Kate said. "But he's not going to let her hurt."

Chance didn't look convinced as he crossed his arms and glared at Kate, though he fell silent, especially when Charlie tentatively asked for  _The Little Mermaid_ for their singalong and the other kids made the best of the trip.

Though, of course, as soon as they arrived at the mansion, Chance took off toward Hank's lab, as fast as seven-year-old legs could carry him, right past his parents.

"He's on a mission," Kate explained to Scott, sounding worn out from wrangling all of the kids at the party as she let them all run free at last.

"You managed all of them on your own?" Scott asked with a little frown as he turned her way from watching Chance disappear down the hall.

"No need to sound surprised. I  _am_ a superhero," Kate said with a smirk.

"No, I'm just…." He let out a sigh. "Just don't let K know or you'll never hear the end of how you need two dozen kids."

She laughed. "Yeah, that on top of the Catholic jokes would be bad," she agreed. She looked back toward where Chance had disappeared. "He's fine. He's just upset because Elin got hurt at the party, and he wants to go see her."

"Yeah, Tyler filled us in once he was done healing her," Scott told her. "Kurt's still holding her in the med lab. She broke everything in her arm."

Kate winced. "Oooh. Yeah. That sounds bad. Did they knock her out?"

"They had to. She's still out, last I heard. Kurt will need a vacation, I'm sure."

"Oh no," Kate deadpanned. "What a nightmare."

"Your timing is excellent, though," Scott told her. "K and Logan are due back any time."

"Oh good," Kate said with a smile. "Then they can give me my husband back, since I know he's not going anywhere until Elin's either with her parents or awake and upright and happy again."

"You know where he is now," Scott pointed out. "You can leave the others with us."

"Thanks!" Kate called out cheerfully, already headed down to the labs to go find Kurt and Elin, in need of a good break herself after all that wrangling.

When she got downstairs, she somehow wasn't surprised at all to find that Elin was asleep in Kurt's arms — or that Chance had clearly made himself comfortable climbing up into Kurt's lap to watch out for her — or that both of them looked overly concerned in general about the whole thing.

"Oh come on, boys; she's not made of glass," Kate said as she sat down next to them.

"But it hurts!" Chance said, wide-eyed.

"She'll be fine," Kurt promised him. "I'm sure Hank will show you the X-rays if you want to see how well it's been mended."

Chance seemed to consider this for a long moment before he finally nodded. "Okay," he said, wriggling until he slid down from Kurt's lap so he could rush over to Hank. "Can I see?"

"Of course," Hank told him before he took the folder with the X-rays and motioned Chance over to the light box to show him what had happened. "This one is when she came in," Hank told him, pointing to the first, and then he put the second one up. "And this is after Tyler healed everything. She's right as rain. She only needs to wake up."

"Was it really bad?" Chance asked as he looked over the pictures. "You didn't have to put Gerry to sleep when  _he_ broke his arm."

"Gerry's break was a little simpler," Hank told him. "And Elin has extra bones that had to be fixed." He pointed out the different breaks and lines before he dug around to find a normal arm X-ray. Gerry didn't have that many bones."

"Oh, right," Chance said, nodding his understanding. "I forget about the claws."

"Well, it's not a guarantee that they would have been exactly the same," Hank told him.

"But her mom and dad  _both_ have them, duh!" Chance said.

"True," Hank said with a little laugh. "But that doesn't mean it  _has_ to happen."

"Like how Chloe looks like Mom and not Dad," Chance said, nodding.

"Exactly," Hank replied. "Logan has another son — and his claws aren't the same."

"Ooh, okay," Chance said, nodding. He seemed to be considering this for a long time before he asked, "So me and Charlie might not have lasers?"

"It's possible," Hank replied. "Nothing is for sure when it comes to that."

"Well, if Elin has claws, then I wanna have op- optic blasts," he decided with a little nod.

Hank gave him a kind smile, unwilling to burst Chance's bubble when he had been upset on Elin's behalf before. "Unfortunately, we don't get to choose what we get or don't get."

"So maybe I can get claws?" he asked, perking up excitedly.

Hank laughed lightly. "Anything is possible, I suppose."

"That's what I want if I don't get optical blasts," Chance said.

Before Hank could come up with something that wouldn't crush Chance but would at least ease him into the idea that he wouldn't have blasts or claws, Elin started to wake up — and was very confused, crying and hiding in Kurt's shoulder when she did.

So it was good that her parents had arrived by then and had been sent Elin's way by a quietly concerned Scott. While Kurt was trying to shush Elin and get her settled out — getting more anxious himself in the process — Logan came in and sat down next to them until Elin saw him and shifted to snuggle up to her father instead.

"Are you okay?" K asked Kurt when she came to a stop beside him. "I'm sure this was a horrible day for you."

"I am… just worried," Kurt said, stopping himself before he could claim to be alright. "She's had a rough day."

"She's had you, and Hank, and Tyler — all three of you working to keep her calm," K said before she looked over to where Chance looked overly distressed again. "And, of course, Chance. You've done all you can. She's never been knocked out before, and you know everyone reacts differently."

"Yes, well. Still," Kurt said, shaking his head.

Before he could say anything else, she pulled him into a tight hug. "Thank you for taking care of her."

Kurt relaxed a bit and returned the hug warmly. "My pleasure, as always," he told her.

* * *

A little further out from the Drews' backyard, just past where anyone would be looking, Azazel was irritated. If he still had a tail, it would have been twitching; but for the moment, he was simply glaring at the man beside him. "We wait all this time and they finally leave their haven… and you are content to limit yourself to a stalking misdemeanor."

"Shaddup," Creed half growled out. "I know what I'm doing, and if you want the time to get done whatever hocus pocus you wanna pull, yankin' em while they can figure out fast who it was that did it ain't gonna cut it."

Azazel glared at him with his arms crossed. "I  _can_ be subtle — can you?"

"Oh sure you can. I'm sure Nightcrawler got all his drama from Mystique," Creed drawled out in his most sarcastic tone. He turned toward Azazel. " _She_ can do subtle. You should take notes some time."

"Such an endorsement," Azazel murmured.

Creed shook his head. "If you were capable of subtle, you'd have done it yourself by now. Fool yourself all you like, but you and I both know the truth."

Azazel's eyes narrowed before he finally waved Creed off. "I'm simply tired of waiting."

"Yeah, you're gettin' older by the minute," Creed said with a smirk. "You'll have to tell me what that's like."

Azazel let out a noise of pure disdain. "I won't be aging much longer, I assure you."

He chuckled at that. "Right. Magic."

"I wouldn't be turning to your methods if it wasn't necessary," Azazel sneered.

"Right. So maybe let me do my job without the running commentary."

"Thus far you've done nothing but sulk in the shadows. Not much for a job."

"I know what will work to get those tykes' attention," Creed said. "Make 'em come to me."

Azazel let out a sigh. "That part is simple enough," he agreed as he turned to leave — since the children and their parents were gone now. "Next time, perhaps."

"We'll see," Creed said. "I think I got a plan just about solid. And it won't happen for another couple of months."

"Fine," Azazel said. "Then I will make my preparations for my spell."


	5. True Stories

Bobby had the news on in the blackbird as the X-Men flew out to LA for the official ribbon-cutting of their new west coast school — really just an excuse to celebrate something, since it had been nearly a year in the making and everyone was excited to get started.

They were all following the registration argument — and keeping an eye on local news as well. Once again, any sign of mutants making any progress was met with protests outside the Supreme Court building and throughout the country, with marches, rallies, and an increase in hate crimes.

The previous weekend, Storm and Remy had gone to a small California town — since they were close anyway — after hearing about a missing mutant, though they hadn't been searching long before the body washed up for police to find.

There were more such cases all the time, since the argument being made in the Supreme Court was over whether mutants — who weren't  _human_ — were entitled to  _human_ rights. With that kind of argument on a national stage, people were running with it.

If mutants weren't people, according to the law, then why would the law prosecute their murders?

Jenny Walters had written a beautiful counterpoint on just  _why_ human rights applied here, backed up by geneticists and evolutionary scientists a mile long, but the fact remained that the law enforcement officials were not arresting anyone. At all.

So the X-Men had been busy, and they collectively agreed that they could use a reason to celebrate.

"It's been too long since we stirred up trouble of this magnitude," Storm told her newly-arrived friends with a smirk as she looked out at the protesters beyond the gates of the school.

"Or not long enough, depending on how you look at it," Kitty said as she followed Storm's gaze.

"They won't get past the security measures," Noh said with a confident smile as he led the way inside. "Let them stand in their ignorance. I have an excellent playlist, and I'm told the champagne ordered for the evening is excellent."

"And some good non-sparkling wine, too," Kate put in.

"It seems that it's inescapable," Storm said, though it was clear she was restraining herself from simply starting up a thunderstorm over the protesters.

"People are stupid," Jubilee agreed. "But Noh's right: he's got some good party music, and I can always accidentally get too close with some celebratory fireworks!" she added cheerfully.

"Oh, I'm sure that we can deal with them in a manner that won't get us cited for fireworks violations," Storm said with a little smirk. "Microbursts can be so unpredictable."

"If we weren't in LA, there could be icy road conditions," Bobby put in.

"But … since it's LA, no one would argue with a fire," Rachel said with a laugh.

"How about no fires until after your tiny snowglobe?" Kate teased.

"Fine," Rachel said, looking honestly put out. "If you insist. No firebird."

"Now, normal arson on the other hand…" Kate said, grinning with a spark of trouble.

Once the X-Men got into the school, though, the focus went from the protesters outside and the various methods of felonies at their disposal to the school itself. It was absolutely gorgeous, with a modern style that wasn't like the "old money" feel of the mansion in Westchester. It had plenty of windows that looked out toward the beach and a sleek black design that seemed to match Storm's sophisticated style. All the common areas were working off an open floor plan that flowed from one area to the next that didn't feel too space-age but managed instead to pull in the feel of the great outdoors.

"It's perfect," Jubilee declared happily. "Home sweet home."

"Oh, the kids are gonna love this," Kitty agreed.

"Forget the kids; the  _staff_ is gonna love this," Bobby laughed.

Storm grinned as she gave the group a tour of the school that ended in a large ballroom that would almost definitely be used for Halloween purposes. A few of Storm's LA staff that weren't part of the Westchester crew had arrived by that time as well — Betsy and Angel — and they had taken the liberty of finding the best wine, both of them grinning as the group arrived.

"It's about time we got this started," Betsy said as she took the opened bottle from Warren. "We've been severely needing a west coast branch for  _years_."

"No kidding," Jubilee agreed with a huge grin.

"Just think, Jubilee: if Charles had put up a west coast school when you were young, you never would have wound up in Australia," Betsy teased.

Jubilee stuck her tongue out and then let out a little sniff. "And miss meeting Wolvie? No thanks."

"He would have died without you," Betsy said with a warm smile as she handed Jubilee a glass of wine. "And you've never let any of us forget it."

"Nope. You might forget how awesome I am otherwise — and that is a  _crime_."

As things got going in earnest, it was clear that there was some kind of a to-do down at the gates, as news crews and reporters were gathering amid the protesters. "Storm, if you want a break, I can handle this," Warren offered.

"If you would," Storm agreed. "I've been dealing with them for months now."

Warren nodded with a little smile and a confident ruffle of his feathers before he headed down the way to where the gates were, all smiles for the camera as he lavished praise on Storm and the school for what they were doing.

"In addition, the Worthington Foundation has already pledged to make some much-needed improvements to the local Boys & Girls center in town," Warren was saying with a practiced smile. "We're truly looking forward to helping to make the community better for everyone."

"And what about all the people living here who are in danger having this so-called school drawing a target on the community?" someone called out — it wasn't clear if it was the press or a protester.

"I'm sure you'll find that the town and everyone in the community can enjoy continued security," Warren replied. "We've taken great care to ensure that our students and our neighbors will be safe in spite of what trouble a small-minded section of the population might try to pull. If you weren't a target before, you should have nothing to concern yourself with, whether you're joining us or not."

"So there's no truth to the rumors that the  _other_ school is destroyed all the time?"

Warren laughed lightly. "Even if that was the case, it wouldn't be a trouble for the town — unless more jobs to rebuild are some sort of hardship."

"And what if we just don't  _want_ you here?" called out a protester — unmistakable by the sign he was holding and the fact that a large part of the crowd was nodding along with him.

Warren turned his way with the same open smile that he'd been wearing the whole time. "Considering that this tract of land had been on the market for the past fifteen years with not so much as an interested call, I'm sure it shouldn't be of anyone's concern — unless that someone was going out of their way to get offended."

"Do you have anything to say to the students headed your way in the fall?" a reporter prompted after Angel's response had prompted a round of chuckles.

"We're looking forward to meeting everyone and getting classes underway," Warren said in a more welcoming and gentle tone. "We hope to make sure that this school is second to none, worldwide." He smiled a little wider and turned to the camera that the friendly reporter had behind her. "And of course, the staff of Xaviers would like to wish James Hudson luck with his new educational endeavor in Canada, though Xaviers will remain open to students from all countries. Canada included."

When it was clear that the reporters were happy with the answers he was giving them, and they had no more questions, he thanked them for their time, turned around, and lifted off to fly back to the school.

* * *

Allison and her best friend, Lydia, were visiting New York City for the first time for Spring Break. Both of them were students at Harvard, freshmen, starting to see the world for the first time on their own, and they had become the closest of friends since rooming together, even if Allison was pre-law and Lydia was pre-med; Allison was from Montana and Lydia was from Puerto Rico; Allison was a mutant and Lydia was a human.

Allison looked fairly normal, and Lydia was always impressed with how well her contacts worked. The first time Allison had taken them out to show the glowing green behind the heavy-duty contacts, Lydia had to admit, she definitely freaked out. But it turns out it was kind of cool having a roommate with very mild X-ray vision. She couldn't see through walls or anything, but she could always tell when a guy had a questionable drink in his hand or when someone in class had the answers under their exam sheets.

The two of them wanted to see more than just the usual sights, they got some local recommendations for clubbing joints. They had been having a blast for three days,so and it wasn't until the fourth that they ran into trouble.

It started simply enough. They were taking the ferry back from the Statue of Liberty — one of the few "big" sights they just  _had_ to see — when there was a particularly good wave that got half the passengers on that side and hit Allison in the face, getting saltwater in her contact.

It was obvious that Allison was trying to ignore it until they got somewhere with fewer people, but finally, she simply had to bend down and pull out the contact to get the salt  _out_ of her eyes. It was fast enough that Lydia figured no one had noticed — it wasn't like other people hadn't been hit with the water — though they both noticed a group of about three guys who started to follow them after the ferry.

The girls glanced at each other and both quickly picked up their pace, though they hadn't gotten far before one of the guys caught up to them.

It would have been one thing if they'd started hitting on them, but this guy just grabbed Allison by the arm and pushed her back into his friends — ignoring Lydia entirely.

"Hey!" Lydia said as one of the three guys blocked her path and the other two got a good grip on her best friend. "Let her go!"

"What're you gonna do about it?" the guy sneered, grabbing both of her arms before she could move to toss her into a wall hard enough that her head was swimming.

She might have checked out for a while there — she wasn't quite sure — but she knew that she heard her friend scream for help as she got back to her feet and started rushing toward the sound, her heart hammering, especially because it took her a while to find her friend with how disoriented she felt after the hit to her head.

She wasn't sure how long it had been since those guys found her and her friend, but it had apparently been long enough for them to beat up Allison pretty badly while calling her every nasty name in the book. With her head hurting her as bad as it was, Lydia didn't think that she could do anything but call for help, and she had her phone out to call 911 when the blackbird touched down nearby.

"Woah," Lydia said, her eyes wide as she switched gears and flicked her camera phone to "record" as the X-Men poured out. Big names, too, like freakin' Cyclops and Iceman and Jubilee — plus that new girl Mistral and the alien guy that half the girls in their graduating class had a crush on.

Noh-Varr and Iceman were the first to the scene, and they pushed the creeps back as the other two rushed to Allison. Jubilee was pulling things out of a black bag, and Cyclops seemed to be trying to talk to her injured friend.

She was planning on recording the fight, but … what she was hearing and seeing by her friend was much more interesting.

Cyclops had taken Allison's hand and was talking to her quietly. She couldn't hear all of it, but what she could hear was encouraging. "Just try to relax," he told her. "We're going to get you to a doctor, get you fixed up, and if you need a place to stay for a while, we'll get you that too."

Finally, Lydia got up the courage to poke her nose in with a little cough. "I can get her home," she offered. "I'm her roommate. We're just… we were just ... uh…." She got the words caught in her throat when the X-Men turned their attention her way. "She lost her contacts…"

"She needs a doctor," Cyclops pointed out. "They did her a lot of damage."

"Yeah," Lydia said, wide-eyed.

He turned his attention back to the injured girl. "Do you want us to take you to a doctor? I can promise you he won't give you a hard time about being a mutant."

Allison nodded very lightly. "Okay."

He turned back to Lydia. "You can come along if you're scared for her, or we can get her home once she's patched up."

"I… should stick with her," Lydia said, sounding braver than she felt.

He nodded once and gestured for her to follow as Noh-Varr and Iceman returned to help Allison to the jet. "You can sit with her — just let one of us know if she looks like she's getting worse." Cyclops paused and tipped his head to the side. "Are you okay?"

She gulped and nodded quickly. "I'm alright," she said.

"If you feel dizzy, speak up," he told her as they loaded up on the jet. "That head wound looks painful."

Lydia continued to look wide-eyed as she stared around the blackbird and nodded absently. "It is — I mean, it's fine — I mean — wow."

"You'll both be fine," Cyclops told her with a little smirk. "We'll even get you a little ice to deal with on the way back." He looked toward Iceman, who let out a drawn-out sigh before he slid into the seat across from them.

"Hi. What would you like iced up? Ice pack? Ice cube? Iced Cyke? Take your pick; I'm good with all of 'em."

"An ice pack would be nice, I guess," she said as she stared around the plane and then back at her friend. "We're supposed to be on Spring Break, you know."

"Sorry to hear you found the jerks in the city," Iceman told them as Jubilee handed him two melted packs — which he promptly froze and handed over. "Happily, it's still kinda rare for people to get screwed with on vacation. Hopefully, it'll get better from here on out."

"That would be nice," Lydia agreed, then glanced toward Allison. "Is she gonna be alright? Did you get the guys?"

Bobby frowned and leaned his chin on his crossed arms over the back of the seat so he could look her over better. "I'm no doctor, but I'd guess she'll be just fine once she sees our medical staff. And yes. Yes, we got them. Iced them to the spot and left a note for the police to deal with them." He shrugged. "I'm sure you're worried about their welfare too — and they'll be fine. Once they melt their way out of the ice I put around them."

"Okay." She shook her head. "You sure you know where to take her? I mean, she has to go back to Montana to see her eye doctor because the one at the school won't take mutants."

"Oh, yeah, we have a doctor on staff that can get her whatever she needs," he replied easily.

"She really can't afford a big bill," Lydia said in a clearly worried tone.

"Well that's good, because we don't charge," he promised. "Goes against his oath as an Avenger or something. I don't know."

Lydia let out all her breath and leaned back in her seat. "Good. That's … good. Alright." She managed a weak smile Iceman's way. "She's my best friend, okay? I just want her to be alright."

He shrugged one shoulder up. "That's all we want too. Not always easy to do ,though. Especially when you're far away from a support system. So I'm glad she's got you."

"Hey, she's all I got out here too," Lydia said. "Girls gotta have each other's backs."

He gave her a warm smile and glanced toward the cockpit. "Let's get her patched up, then. We're almost there now."

"Thanks," Lydia breathed out. "If you hadn't gotten there when you did… I mean, I've  _seen_ the news…."

"Yeah, that's pretty depressing," he said. "We need to fix that."

"No kidding," she agreed fervently.

* * *

It was only a matter of hours after Lydia and Allison had left Westchester before Lydia's video went viral of the X-Men rescuing Allison — along with her blog post positively  _gushing_ as she told the entire story of the rescue. The details were perhaps filtered through a bit of a doe-eyed lens, but all the same, the end result was that, by the morning after the rescue, the video was on all the video circuits.

So when Scott came down to breakfast to find that Erik had a little twinkle in his eye, he was half on his guard.

"You haven't seen the news yet this morning, have you, Scott?" Erik asked in an interested sort of tone.

"Just got down here," Scott replied, still with a touch of sleep in his voice. The paperwork he'd been doing on top of all the little rescues — with admittedly more heavy hitters on every team than what was likely necessary — was wearing on him. "What's going on now?"

"An intrepid young woman captured your team on film," Erik said, still with that same little smile.

"How bad is it?" Scott asked with almost a wince.

"Quite the opposite," Erik said. "I'm sure they'll talk about it when the weather is through—" He pointed to the screen where the news was playing quietly. "—but it seems this young woman was fully enamored of the team."

"Well that's different," Scott said dryly.

"It was that rescue you ran yesterday — the two girls you brought back here," Erik explained as he poured himself another glass of tea. "One of them recorded the rescue."

"That wasn't anything special," Scott said with a frown, then paused. "What did she get?"

"The video starts when the blackbird landed and goes through your entire rescue of the injured girl up until the girl behind the camera decides to approach your team," Erik said.

He shook his head. "Can't be much then."

"Perhaps not," Erik allowed. "But you should read her testimony of the ordeal. It's almost moving."

Scott smirked. "Right. I'm sure it's something else."

Erik gestured for Scott to join him at the table as he pushed the newspaper he was reading Scott's way — the national news section that he had finished, not the world news that he was still working on. However, when the news was through with the weather, the story had already taken on a different spin since Erik read about it.

The banner underneath the lead anchor read: "X-Men Stage Assault?" and the panel that followed was full of critiques from the angles of the camera to the validity of a college girl on Spring Break — "probably hungover" — giving her account of things.

Scott lifted his cup toward the screen. "Now  _that_  is more like I'm used to seeing when they report on us."

"Indeed," Erik said, though he sounded almost disappointed.

The two of them finished their newspaper in relative quiet with the news playing their spin in the background, though the mood of the news was altered yet again when this time Kate and Jana were next down, both of them talking excitedly back and forth about something.

"No, no, my favorite was definitely the Rogue rescue. You could  _hear_ the crush from a mile away," Kate was saying.

"Like they don't all sound like that," Jana countered. "I kinda like the Nightcrawler one."

Kate made a face. "Of course you do."

"What, does it make you  _uncomfortable_ that someone has eyes for your man?"

"He's a married mister!"

"Yeah, so's half the team," Jana pointed out.

Kate waved her hand at Jana. "Whatever. Still not as good as the entire subforum dedicated to kids who've grown up after Wolverine saves."

"I know you're the one who keeps anonymously commenting that the title needs to be changed," Jana laughed.

"Well 'Wolverine Encounters' just sounds so  _boring_ ," Kate insisted. "'Hug Magnet Sightings,' on the other hand…"

"What are you talking about — and please tell me that this isn't a real discussion, because you know Logan and K will be down soon," Scott said, cutting across her thought.

Kate beamed at Scott delightedly. "It's a real thing, boss man. An entire site dedicated to X-Men rescues. It went up in a matter of  _hours_."

"Stop calling him a hug magnet publicly," Scott warned. "Even if it's anonymous."

Kate just laughed. "I only did it three times, and only because I swear, Scott,  _I swear_ , there is literally an entire subforum on this site dedicated to the kids he's rescued. Some of them are adults now and everything — still remember the hug magnet encounter of the marshmallowy kind."

"Don't do that," he insisted. "If there's a forum for that, there will be a forum for people he's scared the life out of or worse if this keeps up, and he doesn't really need that."

"It's tightly moderated," Kate said. "I have  _no_ idea who's running it, honestly."

"Oh, great. You put it up," he said, letting out a breath. "Nothing biased about that."

"I did  _not_." Kate said, covering her heart with one hand. "I swear to you, I had nothing to do with it."

"Then which of your little friends did?"

"For your information, the first any of us heard about it, it was already about fifty posts deep. Teddy talked his way into being a moderator, don't ask me how, and I know he's the one keeping my hug magnet thing from being a thing just to be a  _pain_ ," Kate said, waving her hand at Scott. "It cropped up all on its own. Really. People heard about the rescue yesterday and took offense to the news saying it was fake."

"And there are fifty stories like that up already?" Scott asked, looking more than a little disbelieving of the story.

"Not as detailed as the first one, obviously," Jana put in. "A lot of them are just a few sentences. You know… 'X-Men saved me from stupid people. I was this old and it was at this place' kind of thing."

"But some of them are  _gushing_ ," Kate said with a grin. "And detailed!"

"Don't …." Scott let out a sigh and sat down with a fresh cup of coffee, rubbing his temples. "This never has turned out well for us."

"What, people saying nice things about you?" Kate shook her head.

"It's always overshadowed and stomped out," Scott clarified.

"Well, in that case, you might be right," Kate admitted. "Seeing as my movie release is in three weeks." She gave him a rueful grin. "Probably get distracted with the anti-MRD stuff."

"I can't believe I'm saying it, but at least it'll take the focus off the team and the school," Scott said as Logan came down alone.

"When is that thing anyhow?" Logan asked.

"First weekend of May," Kate said cheerfully. "We got a prime summer slot. That's the most coveted release weekend in the business."

"Good for you," Logan said flatly as he poured up his coffee and took a seat in his usual spot. "Any other giant babysitting messes coming up I should know about?"

Jana and Kate glanced at each other before both of them promptly broke down laughing. "Nope! Nothing you should know about!" Kate said, still cheerfully, as she poured herself another cup of coffee.

He paused, glaring at her over the top of his mug. "What  _shouldn't_ I know about then?"

Jana shook her head. "Just a bunch of kids on the internet sharing 'How the X-Men Saved Me' stories," she said. "You feature in quite a few."

"Sure I do," Logan muttered, shaking his head as he focused on his coffee and unfolding his paper, clearly prepared to blow her off entirely.

"Really," Jana said. "Bunch of kids who all claim Wolverine saved them. Actually, there a good group of teenagers from about ten years back who said there was a bust up in Canada?"

"Why the hell do kids wanna tell crap stories like that?" Logan grumbled, looking positively snarly as he got into his paper.

"Well, boss man here was on TV after someone filmed him being super sweet rescuing someone yesterday, and the news said it was fake." Kate held up her phone. "The internet disagreed. Don't disagree with the internet, Wolverine."

"Internet's full of liars," Logan growled out.

"Usually, but in this case, most of the stories check out," Jana said. "I checked a few against records at the school."

"Oh yeah?" Logan challenged, looking up from his paper. "Where're you fact checkin' — and who gave you access?"

"Oh, well ... I …" Jana rubbed the back of her neck. "I'm trying to learn patterns and tactics, and I thought maybe knowing the history..."

"Don't corroborate anything," Scott said offhandedly. "For anyone."

"Yeah, okay," Jana agreed quickly.

"If you want to read it, make sure it's all on the up and up…" Kate said slowly.

"Not wastin' my time on trash like that," Logan muttered.

"It's not  _trash_ ," Kate said, sounding affronted. "It's good! These stories are  _great_  — especially for the team!"

"I can email you guys the link," Jana offered.

"Please," Scott said at the same time Logan replied with a resounding 'No'.

"Okay, but you're missing out on 'Cyclops pulled me out of a fire and let me count the ways I love him'," Jana chuckled.

"I've seen Cyclops pulling all kinds of things outta all kinds of places," Logan deadpanned. "Not newsworthy."

"But the poetry," Jana sang out, earning a little chuckle from Kate.

"It's not  _that_ bad," Kate promised when she saw the look on Scott's face. "But there is a little hero-worship, admittedly."

"Nothing like Kamala's fanfiction," Jana added.

"Oh, no," Kate agreed quickly.

"Still fiction," Logan said, as Scott absently nodded along with him.

"Yeah? I dare you to read five and look up the dates and tell me they weren't there," Kate countered.

Logan lowered his paper all the way, wearing a more concentrated glare than earlier. "You want me to research a bunch of crap? You're out of your mind."

"Chicken Hawk!" Kate sang out. "Scared of the internet and a few teenagers. Big, bad, scary Wolverine and his fear of research."

"Keep it up and you can forget any babysitting," he countered.

"You only threaten when you don't wanna do things because you're a  _Chicken Hawk_!" Kate sang.

"I'm not a damn Chicken Hawk; that's your handle, not mine," he pointed out. "I'm just way too damn tired of reading lies and crap written about us."

"They are not lies," Jana said. "Really. There's one on there about one of the first missions I got to do with the team, so I know it's the real deal."

"Well, I've already read enough 'real deal' crap about myself, thanks," Logan grumbled.

"Then read the stuff about the others," Jana suggested. "Actually, there's a pretty good section of fun stories on Kurt. Lots of 'scared out of my mind' at first and then grateful after the fact."

"He can use the good press," Kate agreed. "And you know when  _I_ agree that they're good stories about him, they are. I'm protective."

"Good for him," Logan said with a nod.

Kate just rolled her eyes. "C'mon, Jana, this is the table full of pessimism and Chicken Hawks." With that, the two girls took their breakfasts outside to enjoy the late spring weather, still giggling to each other over each new story that was posted to the site.


	6. The Treasures of Little Girls

 

Kate double- and triple-checked her comm that she had strapped at her hip and hidden in the design of her long, flowing, purple dress. It was the premiere of  _The Response Division_ , and she was just  _sure_ someone was going to try something.

Well… something more.

The Friends of Humanity had already sent her at least a dozen death threats, and nobody who couldn't heal was allowed to touch her mail anymore. Someone had planted a bomb at one of the theaters playing the movie, but that had been cleared out long before anyone could get hurt. And, oh yeah, some group in Louisiana had held a book burning party… which Kate was trying very hard not to point out was counterintuitive, since they had to buy a bunch of copies of the book in the first place, so they were just helping her sales…

Kate let out a sigh. She  _had_ known that this movie was going to bring down all sorts of problems. It was also spectacularly bad timing that it was going on while the internet was exploding with "How the X-Men Saved Me" stories. The anti-X-Men site that was trying to get set up in response kept getting taken down somehow; Kate didn't know how, but she wanted to hug whoever was responsible. And then there was the announcement that the Supreme Court was expected to announce its decision on the registration act any day now…

There was a lot going on.

"You look lovely,  _liebchen_ ," Kurt said as he appeared just behind her, resting his chin on her shoulder as she looked herself over in the mirror.

"I always do," she teased, turning in his arms so she could drape hers around his shoulders and then kiss him deeply. "And you look amazing as well," she added, looking over his suit as she smoothed out the edges of his tux. "I love when you wear this."

"Which is why I wear it," he teased her gently as he pulled her into a slightly longer kiss. When it broke, he stepped back and looked her over. "Well, shall we?"

She threaded her arm through his. "Into the sharks we go," she agreed.

With that, the two of them were off, teleporting to Hollywood where the red carpet gala was just beginning. A few other famous names had turned up for the premiere to show their support, people like Tony Stark working the rope line and even Kamala and Miles. Of course, most of the Young Avengers had arrived as well — this premiere really was going to be safe with this many heroes in one place — and Kate was surprised to see Angel there as well, chatting amicably with a few reporters.

When she got close enough to hear what he was saying, she couldn't help but grin, impressed with his ability to handle them: "Of course I want to see this movie. This is something I lived personally. Besides," he said, seeming to notice Kate as he flashed her a smile and waved her over, "I've read the book that this movie is based on. If the movie is as compelling as the source material, I'm sure it will be award-winning."

Kate grinned at him and nodded her agreement, waving at the cameras as several flashbulbs went off. "It really is an amazing book," Kate agreed with a winning smile. "You know me and my authors — I'm behind them one hundred percent — and I'm telling you, it's worth the read. Even I didn't know half of the stories that went into that book before I read them, and for this movie, we were able to wrangle a few more true stories to base our film off of."

"So it won't just be a rehashing of years-old stories from the book?" a reporter asked.

"No way," Kate said, shaking her head fervently. "You think we're going to ignore everything that's been happening in the last few years? Honestly, if production hadn't already wrapped, we could add another whole movie's worth just from the last few weeks!"

"That's half the draw," Warren agreed with a nod. "That's why you're all here, isn't it? It's a timely story."

A few of the reporters nodded at that, and Kate grinned. "Why don't you ask me more about the movie  _after_ we've all gone inside to see it, huh?" she offered. "See it for yourself. Then you can even ask me about specifics. I cited sources and brought all my notes on my phone just for you guys — don't ever say I don't work for a living!" Kate laughed, getting a few chuckles out of the reporters.

The questions turned from the movie to the school, and Kate let Warren handle those — "since he's on staff there, and I'm at the classic Westchester location" — before she slipped off to make sure she got in an appearance with as many of her friends as she could as well as the cast, director, and producers… at least as much as she was able before the red carpet walk was through.

It was a little dizzying, all of the schmoozing and answering the same exact questions over and over again in a way that didn't sound like she'd prepared her answers — even though she had — and still looking genuinely relaxed. That was the key: as long as she looked like she wasn't stressed about the death threats, people would believe her when she said that she wasn't stressed about the death threat — not that she believed it herself.

Still, once all that was over and the movie stars, bigwigs, and reporters alike headed into the premiere, Kate could relax, leaning her head on Kurt's shoulder through the entire movie. She had seen it at least a thousand times by now, had practically every line and camera move memorized for how many times she'd watched it to make sure it was exactly what she wanted… but it was still unsettling every time watching the familiar MRD story playing out in front of her.

The audience reaction was good, though. They were clearly engaged, if the little murmurings she could hear were any indication. In fact, the further the movie got into the story — the examination of the way mutants were  _really_ treated — the louder the whispers got.

It was painful to watch for people who had lived it, honestly. Too true to life. But Kate had wanted it that way. The depictions of mutants being rounded up, being attacked, being killed outright … it was a lot in one sitting, but somehow, the director had managed to keep it from teetering over that edge into horror.

By the time the final scene ended and the black title card came up, the theater was silent. And then came the memorandum — the "in memory of the thousands of people who have died because of organizations that preach only death and hate" — that really brought a hush over the crowd as the reality of what they'd just watched sank in.

Kate wasn't sure if the silence was a good thing or not, and she was half holding her breath until, partway through the real credits, someone started clapping, and she let her shoulders drop.

 _Well, it's out now_ , she thought to herself as the director and the cast took the main part of the attention, and the group started to head out to where Kate was absolutely sure there would be  _plenty_ of questions waiting for her.

"It was perfect," Betsy said quietly to Kate as Warren hit the first line of reporters. "Breathe before you pass out. But don't smile."

Kate turned Betsy's way for a moment and very lightly let out a breath. "It wasn't too much?" she asked very quietly.

"Your director could have gone further, but he walked a very fine line. It could easily have been a shock factor flick, but I think it came off as closer to Academy Award material. Realistic."

Kate couldn't help but let out a relieved sort of sigh. "Oh good. I didn't want it to be a shock factor," she said. "Not for something like this."

"No, there were parts I thought could have gone further," Betsy said with her head close to Kate's. "The only way to have done it better would be to wait until it was a distant memory and have Spielberg handle it."

Kate almost smiled despite herself. "That means a  _lot_ , I hope you know."

"I know," she said before she turned to watch Warren. "He's got this, you know."

"Yeah, I've seen him work. It kind of makes me seethe with jealousy," Kate said. "He makes it look effortless, which is incredibly unfair."

"He's been doing it for a lot longer," Betsy replied. "And watching his father work the lines of press junkets since he was old enough to walk and be a blonde haired, blue-eyed prop for him."

"That part I get," Kate nodded along to every word before she lightly squeezed Betsy's arm. "Thanks, really. Your opinion means more than  _any_ of the reviews that are about to come in."

"Well. I am a tiny bit biased," she admitted.

"Everyone's biased with a topic like this," Kate pointed out.

"Fair point." Betsy smiled. "I'll go join my Angel. See you at the after party."

* * *

Peter Quill and Remy were hopelessly outnumbered.

Several of the kids that they had somehow been roped into watching en masse while half the mansion was at Kate's movie premiere were piled on top of Quill, pronouncing him 'vanquished' in the true pattern of bad guys everywhere, while the other half were trying to do the same to Remy, who wasn't going down as easily simply because he had Jolie attached to his neck and he was trying not to fall on any of the kids.

So when he finally did go down, the kids all mobbed him, celebrating their victory and demanding snacks.

"Now, you all know you gon' have pizza jus' soon as Spiderman get here wit' it. Why you gon' ruin yo' appetite like dat?" Remy teased Charlie, who had been insisting that fruit snacks were the best thing after beating a bad guy.

"Cuz fruit snacks, duh!" Charlie said as if this was obvious as Sying fell apart in giggles at the look on her face.

"Relax," Quill said, leaning back with his hands behind his head. "What's it going to hurt if they have a few fruit snacks? You're starting to sound like an old man."

"She want fruit snacks; Chance want chips; Krissy over dere askin' for ice cream sundaes," Remy pointed out with an easy laugh. "We just gon' wait for de pizza before dey strip de kitchen and we left wit Miss Annie askin' where all her good food get to."

"Ah. So that's it. You're afraid of Hurricane Annie. Got it." Quill was smiling broadly.

"Everybody scared of Hurricane Annie," Remy laughed. "'Specially when it come to de kitchen."

"Nah, just those closer to her and the Southern boys that are skeered of Southern women."

"Cause we know better'n you," Remy countered, grinning widely.

"Not everyone is afraid of Hurricane Annie," Quill said as he picked up Elin for a snuggle. "Isn't that right, sweetheart?"

"Right," Elin agreed, snuggling into him a little better.

"She ain't a hurricane right now anyway," Remy said as he leaned back and propped his feet up and Sying hopped up to join him. "She too busy wit Rachel."

"She doesn't yell at  _me,_ " Elin said.

"Nobody gon' yell at you,  _petit_  — you too perfect," Remy laughed.

"Nuh-uh," Elin said with one eyebrow raised.

"You sayin' you ain't perfect? 'Cause dat a dirty lie,  _petit_."

She got up from Quill and pushed Remy's arm hard. "I'm not a liar."

Remy just grinned at her and swept her up to throw her in the air and catch her. "I know," he promised. "But you perfect," he added as he gave her a little kiss right on top of her head. Though if she wanted to argue the point, she would have a hard time, as the door opened to admit Spiderman and a big stack of pizzas, and the loud mobbing that followed would have drowned out any argument.

"Wow, gee, wait, who forgot to feed the zoo animals?" Peter teased as he scooped up Sadie from where she'd already hugged him around the leg. "I didn't bring peanuts, but I did bring pizza — think that's okay?"

Sadie kissed the side of his face and snuggled in with a soft little 'yeah' that only he could catch while the other kids lined up in a rush.

"After everyone gets pizza, what about a water balloon fight?" Peter called out with a grin — and the chorus of grins, whoops, and nodding heads just had him grinning wider. "Sounds like a yes."

Quill grinned along with the kids and reached down to snag Kaleb when the little boy was trying to pull an entire pizza box for himself. "Hey, why don't you start with just something you-sized and work up to that?" he teased.

"No!" Kaleb giggled, trying to start a little tug of war — though with a little tickle, the little boy dissolved into giggles and quickly gave up his battle.

"How 'bout you share wit' your sisters," Remy suggested, grinning at the little boy, who gave him a little nod and a thumbs up, though Remy frowned for a moment when he realized that the two oldest elflings weren't part of the mob. "Where dey go?"

"They were outside with us," Sying said with a little shrug. "Maybe they didn't hear about the pizza?"

"Mebbe," Remy agreed. He looked toward the two Peters. "Krissy an' Kari ain't here," he told them in a calm tone. "I'm gonna check de grounds — you lemme know if dey show up here or dey playin' hidin' games again."

"I'm sure you'll hear the squeals when the tickles start up," Quill shouted back at him — completely mobbed with a tiny tot fanclub and their dinners.

* * *

Out on the grounds, Kari and Krissy  _had_ been playing with the others kids before Kari spotted something that it looked like maybe one of the other kids had dropped: a perfect little pinwheel lying in the dirt in the trees. She grinned widely when she saw it and rushed over to pick it up, brushing off the dirt and trying to blow on it to get it to spin.

Of course, when Krissy saw her little sister trying to play with the pinwheel, she just  _had_  to show her how it was supposed to work and came bounding over. "Here, lemme help," she said, taking a huge, deep breath to make the pinwheel start moving — and Kari burst into delighted giggles.

Krissy made the pinwheel go around again a few times before she got distracted by a purple shine just a little further out and handed the pinwheel back to her sister, rushing into the trees to pick up the sparkling rock that was practically glowing.

"Oooh, Krissy, it's your fav-wit," Kari giggled when she saw how purple it was.

"Uh-huh, just like Mama's," Krissy agreed, picking up the rock so she could examine it better and see how it sparkled when the light caught it just right.

"Krissy, is that yours?" Kari asked, gesturing towards something else purple a few feet further, and Krissy followed where her sister was pointing to find the sparkling purple shoelace that matched her tennis shoes.

"Oh, yeah. Maybe it fell off," Krissy said, grinning as she stuffed it in her pocket. "I don't like wearing tennis shoes, though."

"So you din  _notice_ ," Kari said, one hand on her hip as she shook her finger at her big sister. "You gotta pay 'tention, Krissy."

"I pay attention!" Krissy argued, but Kari was already off, looking for more things that her big sister might have dropped because she wasn't paying attention.

"Issit yours?" Kari asked from a little further out as she found a beaded necklace, and Krissy let out a frustrated noise as she followed her sister.

"No."

"It's got purple in it."

"It's not  _mine_."

"Well, it's got purple and you lose stuff all the time."

"No, I don't!"

"Yes, you do," Kari said, with both hands on her hips this time.

"Well, it's not mine," Krissy insisted, pointing at the necklace.

"Well, somebody losed it," Kari said as she put it in her pocket. "Maybe it's Miss Annie's or Miss Daisy's."

"That's gotta be it," Krissy agreed, relaxing slightly now that she was not the one being accused of losing things. "Come on — maybe they dropped other things."

The two girls probed the trees for a little while, and though they didn't find anything 'lost', they did find a perfectly rounded, indigo blue glass, and Kari let out a little laugh. "Just like Papa!"

"Lemme see," Krissy said, looking over her sister's shoulder and the bright blue. "Oooh, yeah. Just like Papa."

"We can give Papa my glass and Mama your rock."

"Why's it your glass?"

"Cause I finded it." Kari jutted out her chin. "All by myself."

"I was helping!"

"Well, I finded it first," Kari insisted as she added the blue glass to the pile of things that they were carrying.

"Okay, okay," Krissy grumbled, looking over their little pile. "We should get a basket for all the lost things out here," she said.

"There's a lot of lost things," Kari agreed, still looking around the ground to see if she could find anything else.

But Krissy was looking around the trees. "Kari…" she said quietly. "I don't see the house."

Kari looked up and around. "Oh," she said quietly. "Me neither."

Krissy frowned and then grabbed her sister's hand. "I think… I think we went this way," she said as she steered Kari toward a gap in the trees that she was pretty sure they'd climbed through.

The more the girls wandered trying to find their way back, the more lost they got, but when they smelled the familiar aroma of a cigar, they  _thought_ they'd found the way out. The little elflings followed the scent of the cigar smoke as it got stronger, but when they finally broke into a clearing where the smell was really strong, they did not find Logan like they thought they would.

The tall man who was smoking the cigar looked a lot like Tyler, except with longer hair and the fact that he was smoking, and both of the little girls paused as they looked up at the giant guy. Krissy was holding Kari's hand a little tighter and stepped in front of her sister. "You're not Tyler," she said with a little frown.

"No, I'm not," he agreed, then took a long, relaxed pull off of his cigar. "Who are you?"

The girls glanced at each other. "We're not 'posed to talk to strangers," Kari said.

"That's probably really smart," he replied before he raised an eyebrow at them. "So I guess I shouldn't talk to you either, eh?"

The girls glanced at each other nervously, and Krissy frowned up at him. "Well…" she said slowly. "You can maybe talk to us a little bit,  _just_ to tell us where the school is?"

"It's kinda dangerous in the woods," he told them seriously.

"It's okay; we just gotta go back home," Kari said from behind Krissy.

"I don't know," he said, shaking his head. "I saw bear tracks earlier in the mud."

"Oh." Krissy and Kari glanced at each other. "That is kinda scary," Krissy had to agree. She seemed to size him up. "Do you know Tyler? You kinda look like him, and he can get us home okay."

"I do know Tyler," he said, nodding lightly. "But I'm not 'spposed to talk to strangers either."

Kari giggled. "It's okay if you  _helping_ ," she said in the kind of voice she would use to explain colors to Kaleb. "Mama and Papa help strangers lots."

He looked both of them up and down slowly then offered them one big hand. "Well … I'm Victor."

Krissy stepped in front of her sister to shake his hand. "I'm Krissy, and this is my sister, Kari."

He nodded and leaned a little closer with a little smirk. "Then I guess we're not strangers anymore."

"I guess," Krissy said with a very shy smile. "Can you take us to Tyler, maybe? We're kinda lost."

He got to his feet and stretched out. "Yeah, I guess it's time you got back to where you belonged."


	7. Lopsided Deal

K and Logan were unaware of anything going on with the rest of the mansion, having made a point to take a little time for themselves while everyone was at the movie premiere. Logan was working over a simulation in the Danger Room that K had already gotten tired of when she slipped up the back way to relax. She'd just managed to get cleaned up and in fresh clothes when she stepped out of the bathroom into her room.

She took a deep breath and fell back on the bed. Texts had started to come in as the premiere was going on — and Kate was the source of most of them, or, at the very least, the subject. Her friends were tickled with her successes and were live blogging and snapping photos, photobombing celebrities … the whole nine. And every single time one of them one upped another — K got a text.

It had gotten to the point that she just wanted to set the phone down and ignore it because she was sure alcohol was a factor in at least some of their shenanigans — and she was sorely missing directing the lunacy. So instead, she just stretched out and figured she'd wait for Logan to finish, clean up — and then they could find something interesting to do themselves.

But in the low light of the room, there was suddenly a glowing message that caught her attention.

_Pet-_

_I think you'll find you're missing a few important things. I have no interest in coddling them myself. Follow these coordinates alone and they'll be returned to you. Deviate from my instructions and they will not be. Tell anyone or bring anyone and I'll keep them. I'm sure they can be useful._

For a moment, K just stared at the glowing message, rereading it over and over until it faded. But the moment it was gone, she hurried down the stairs to see who it was that was missing, panicking of course for a moment until she saw all three of her own — and realizing quickly that the only ones missing were Kurt and Kate's girls.

"Logan's already tracking," Quill told her quietly as they tried to keep the kids settled. "We grabbed him from the Danger Room."

"Do you know where he headed?" K asked, running the message over and over in her head.

"Yeah, we were playing in the backyard before we all came in," Quill said. "He's running it from there."

"Okay," she said, nodding to herself and already heading for the front door. "Give them cookies. Put on a movie. It'll be fine. We'll find them."

"Yeah, alright, but just… give a call when you do?" Quill said, looking nervous.

"Of course," she said, frowning slightly his way.

"Remy's probably out there too," Quill told her. "He's been searching since we noticed the girls didn't come in." He leaned a little closer and dropped his voice to a whisper. "No one thinks it's a coincidence, you know? Kurt and Kate's girls on the day of the premiere? Find 'em quick, alright?"

"You can bet on it," K answered before she slipped out. She didn't like it one bit, and she knew that there had to be a way out of it — but for the time being, there were two very scared little girls that needed someone to at least  _try_  to rescue.

She was halfway there before she'd considered sending a text to someone to clue them in, but she was reasonably sure that would be a dead giveaway. Instead, she had it in her mind to try and  _mostly_ play by his rules, though the bracelet she was wearing would give the creep some trouble if she could use it.

When she got to the coordinates that Azazel had provided, she swore to herself on seeing the place. It reeked of both the demon lord and Victor Creed, of all people — and that just meant all kinds of trouble. "Who decided these two should  _ever_ meet?" she asked herself as she started toward the large, dark building.

The former demon king had clearly decided to make use of the pristine setup that had once been one of Sinister's hideouts, clearing away most of the basement setting for a throne in the middle of the room, though he had kept a few of Sinister's pieces of equipment — off to the side — and a cell, where K could see one of the elflings, anyway.

Krissy was balled up with her knees up to her chin and her face buried in them, obviously scared but otherwise unhurt. Kari, on the other hand — she was with Azazel himself, who was seated on the throne holding the little girl. K didn't know what his game was, but Kari didn't seem to be conscious — and the pink sheen to her fur was slowly shifting to a more purple one as if all the red was disappearing.

K barely got all the way in the room when Creed stepped into her path with a little smirk and put his hand out. "Gimmie your phone and anything else you got on you."

K scowled at him and handed him the phone — not that it was going to stop him from searching her anyhow, but … it was worth a shot. "Awful lot of firepower just for me, don't you think?" she asked.

"Not just for you," Azazel said easily, waving one hand, though he kept the other on Kari at all times.

"So why not ask oh,  _any_. Other. Person in the mansion to come for them?"

Azazel grinned at her widely. "Do you think it was an accident I chose this place?" he asked her rather than directly answer the question.

"Well it's a step up from a dirty cave," she said with a little glare. "But if you were after healing, big and ugly here could have done the job just fine himself."

"We have an understanding," Azazel said, waving his hand at the question.

"So that's all you want? A little blood or whatever?" She let out a little tut. "How is that unusual?"

"It's more than a little blood," he laughed. "And as for the rest, well, the children were an excellent lure for  _you_ … adding you to the mix will surely bring my… temporary ally what he's after."

K turned to look up at Creed. "Still can't find any friends, huh? We could tie a pork chop around your neck and you can chase your own ass for a while."

Azazel chuckled as he stood up, still holding Kari in the crook of one arm, though she had changed color from what was once a magenta-purple to very deep blue like her brother. "Well then, let's not waste any more time," he said as he set the little girl down in the cell next to her sister, letting her sleep on as Krissy crawled over to hold her hand.

"You'll let them go once this is over," K said, not asking it as a question.

"I told you they would be returned to you, and I keep my word," he said easily.

"That's only half of it," K pointed out. "Returned to me isn't enough. What then?"

"I suppose that depends entirely on how things go with your mate," Azazel said in an almost bored tone.

"Oh, he is not part of this," K said, straightening up. "If my guess is right, that's between him and Victor. So I'm telling you: if I give you what you're asking for, you're out of their lives and you back the hell off."

Azazel considered her for a moment. "When I have the last vestiges of my power from both of them," he said slowly, "there will be no need for this kind of measure."

She glanced over at the girls then back to him. "You already have all you could get from them. You're pushing for stealing something of mine. Or I can counter offer with kicking your ass all over this place. Victor won't stop me, will you?"

Creed just smirked her way but didn't answer her.

"Why don't we come to our terms of release after we've completed the first deal, hmm?"

She laughed out loud at that. "You're out of your mind. We'll do it now when I still have a bargaining chip."

" _You_  wanted her," Creed pointed out.

"I did," Azazel said with a little frown, watching her closely before he let out a sigh. "A single favor," he said at last. "No strings, no trying to talk your way out. You follow my instructions willingly and to the letter."

"Unless that favor is 'please give me a claw lobotomy,' that is never going to happen."

"Mmm." Azazel let out a disinterested sound as Creed outright guffawed. "Then I suppose the children will stay here with me. You can live out your life watching them, of course."

"Then we fight now — no blood. Outside of what you'll lose."

"And risk the children?" Azazel asked with one eyebrow raised.

She leveled with him, scowling his way. "You're still counting on Victor to cover you, and I happen to know for a fact he is entertained when I kick other men's asses. He's not going to hurt those kids. Not for you."

Azazel looked toward Creed, who was grinning at the show, and let out a scoff of annoyance. "Of course," he said, almost to himself before he turned K's way and offered his hand. "Then the deal is this: the children will be returned to you, unharmed, and you will take them home when I'm finished with them. In return, you will give me the blood I need, and you will remain with the children until after Victor Creed has baited his quarry. I care not where you go after that."

K thought it over for a long moment, glancing between Azazel, the girls, and Victor, who was frowning slightly at her. "Fine."

* * *

By the time it was starting to get dark, someone had already alerted Kate and Kurt to what was going on, since it had been long enough without finding the girls that it was time to pull them in.

Both of them were, of course, a mess of nerves. Kurt was teleporting like mad trying to find every hiding place he could think of for the girls, and Kate was nearly tearing her hair out, convinced that this was her own doing, that someone had come for her family because of her business.

Remy was incredibly upset as well, though when Kate saw him, she rounded on him to get in his face, shouting at him that he was  _supposed_ to be  _watching_ them.

He let her shout right in his face for how horrible he felt until she burst into frustrated tears, and then he sat down with her as she buried her face in her hands and let her cry into his shoulder until she was done.

Logan, meanwhile, was frustrated with his search. He'd found the scent trail easily and had run it down like he was following a neon light, but the faint scent of cigars was right along with the girls' trail until all that he was catching was the cigars. As he grumbled to himself about where they might have disappeared — what kind of creep might steal two defenseless elflings — he kicked the dirt with a frustrated sound and stopped when he thought he scented Victor Creed.

He frowned to himself and backtracked, looking harder for confirmation, but before he could do that, his phone went off: a text from K.

He glanced at it and held his breath when he saw it was an incoming picture, hoping he was wrong and that she'd found them after all, but when the picture loaded, it was of two scared little girls snuggled into each other and K in the foreground, tied down to some sort of table.

The message that went with it was simple: "come get 'em." Creed wasn't even trying to hide their location, going so far as to send a pin on a map. That's how cocky Victor was about the whole affair, and Logan was steaming mad, at a dead run to get his Jeep and head out.

He didn't even bother to check in with anyone as he loaded up and burned rubber out of the driveway.

The drive was a quick one, and he had no doubt that he was going to take Victor down as soon as he saw him, but of course that couldn't be the way it would work out. He wasn't all the way to the door before he was struck with a handful of darts that had him woozy within a few steps. He turned, claws out to fight, and right off the bat, Creed charged him. Obviously, the fight was dirty, and after a solid few minutes, and several nasty hits, Logan was on a downslide as Victor laid into him hard.

But just as Creed was drawing back for another hit, there was a  _bamf_ sound a second before a totally  _livid_ Kurt appeared in front of Creed, both swords already sunk deep into his chest from the second he appeared. Kurt teleported out of the way, pulling the swords with him a second later to do the same thing again, teleporting fast and running Creed through at every turn until the monster staggered and fell and Kurt was left still furious, chest heaving, holding three swords as he turned Logan's way and softened the glare only  _slightly_ as he went to his side.

"Where are the girls?" he asked.

"Inside," Logan slurred out. "With K."

Kurt nodded once and put a hand on Logan's shoulder, teleporting inside with him so that Logan wouldn't be left outside with Creed — though once they got down the steps to the basement, Kurt found himself livid all over again as he saw his father, his arms coated in blood and a few medical supplies in his hands. K was tied down — clearly the source of the blood for how pale she was — and the girls were in a cell in the corner. Kari was asleep — and blue for some reason, though that wasn't the most pressing matter at the moment — but Krissy was just hiding in her knees.

With a cry of fury, Kurt teleported in front of his father, barely restraining himself from running the man through then and there for how mad he was, though Azazel looked more annoyed than anything else.

"Of course you followed your pet here," he said as if this was a minor annoyance. "That's what I get for working with an animal."

"What are you doing with them?"

Azazel simply grinned at him and, in answer, disappeared in a poof of red smoke, only to reappear closer to where the girls were to gesture down at them. "Simply reclaiming what is mine," he said.

"Oh, crap," Logan muttered, though he glanced over to see that, yes, one of the bamfs had followed Kurt as well.

"They are not yours," Kurt snarled out. "Any of them."

"Of course they are," Azazel said, still smiling their way. "You didn't wonder about the color?"

Logan angled himself to charge and, with one hand hidden behind his back, motioned for the terrified little bamf to  _go_. The little guy looked back at Logan in wide-eyed terror, but when he heard his favorite little elfling take a shuddering gasp of a sob, the little guy's tail went straight out behind him just before he narrowed his eyes and teleported into the cell just long enough to grab both girls and leave.

Azazel let out a sound of pure annoyance and frustration before he turned Logan's way and, seeing his stance, let out a laugh. "Perhaps next time, then," he said, disappearing in a puff of red without reappearing again.

Kurt frowned toward the clearing red smoke before he teleported to where Logan was walking over to K, waiting for Logan to get her untied so he could teleport. "That was disastrous," he muttered out.

"What the hell just happened?" Logan asked as he hoisted K up.

"I'm not entirely sure, but I  _am_ sure I don't like it," Kurt said as he put a hand on both of their shoulders and teleported them home — to Logan's room first, for the sake of privacy.

"I'm gonna get her cleaned up," Logan told him. "Come back in a while. I'm sure she'll have a better grasp on what's what."

Kurt nodded his simple agreement before he teleported off to find his girls, not surprised in the least when they were in the first place he looked — with Hank in the lab being looked over. The bamfs had brought Kate down as well, and he had never seen her look so relieved; she was snuggling Kari with everything she had while Krissy latched onto Hank tightly.

"Are they alright?" Kurt asked Hank softly when he appeared beside him.

"Not a scratch on them that I can find," Hank promised.

Kurt nodded and gently scooped Krissy up into a hug as the clearly very scared little girl latched onto his neck. "It's alright," he said gently as he tried to soothe her. " _Du bist sicher, Prinzessin._ "

"What happened, Kurt?" Kate asked over Kari's head. "All the bamfs would tell me is that Azazel was there. And… Creed too?" she looked to the bamfs for confirmation, and they quickly nodded their heads.

"Working in tandem, apparently," Kurt said with a distinct scowl as he sat down with Krissy and rearranged her so that he was holding her tighter. "I will tell you later. K knows more than I do."

"K?" Kate repeated.

"Later," Kurt said as Krissy latched on a little tighter. He patted her hair and her back until she started to relax just a little — and by that time, Kari was starting to wake up, too.

The formerly pink elfling looked around, sleepily, spotted her mom and very quickly buried her face into Kate. "I never wanna be lost again!" she wailed loudly enough that it got Krissy's attention too — and the older girl just started to switch her tail, upset all over again on seeing her little sister crying.

"You're not lost any more, okay, sweetie?" Kate said gently, pulling Kari into a hug. "You're right here with me and your papa and Krissy."

Kari sniffled for a while as both of the little girls tried to snuggle their parents as hard as they could until Kate very gently said, "You two didn't get any pizza. We can have some just us as a family up in our room. I'm sure you're hungry."

"Okay," Kari said with a little nod and a sniff as Krissy quietly nodded along.

Kate nodded to the bamfs, who took the whole family upstairs, and when Kaleb saw them appear, he broke free of Jubilee, his babysitter, and came running over to try and snuggle both of his sisters at once, tugging on both Kate and Kurt's sleeves as he motioned to be picked up by either of them. When Kurt picked him up, he hugged Krissy first and then motioned Kate over so he could reach Kari too, though he stopped a little short at how different Kari looked.

"Kari?" he asked, scrunching his nose up in confusion.

"Yes, that's Kari," Kate explained to him gently, and Kaleb frowned a little harder, his lower lip out in a pout.

"What's wrong with Kaleb?" Kari asked in a suddenly worried tone.

"He's just a little confused, honey," Kate assured Kari quickly when she saw the same worried look on Kari's face that Krissy was still giving Kari. "You look so different."

"I do?" Kari's little eyebrows shot up, and she looked down at herself, gasping out loud when she saw the change before she burst into tears. " _I don't wanna be blue!_ " she shouted at the top of her lungs, pushing at her fur insistently.

Kate tried to shush Kari and reassure her, "It's beautiful, just like your Papa."

"I don't wanna be blue!" Kari shouted over Kate's reassurances.

Kate tried a few more times to reassure the little girl that it was fine, that she looked beautiful, that she matched Kaleb ("I don't wanna match a  _brother_!"), that everyone thought she was beautiful — but of course, Kari was not having any of it.

"But you match Papa too," Krissy said quietly.

Kari glanced up at her big sister as she rubbed her fist against her eyes. "I don't wanna," she said quietly, though she wasn't throwing as much of a fit as before.

"You can still wear pink clothes, sweetheart," Kate promised. "Anything you want. Pink dresses and pink shoes — like I wear purple?" she offered. "It's still your favorite color, right?"

Kari nodded, rubbing her eyes again. "Uh-huh."

"Well, you don't have to  _be_ your favorite color," Kate promised. "I'm not purple, and neither is your Uncle Clint, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"But we still love purple, right?"

"Uh-huh."

Kate smiled down at Kari and rubbed noses with her. "Come on. I bet there are some really pretty pinks that will look  _amazing_ with blue fur," she promised. "We can put some ribbons in your hair while we wait for the pizza, okay?"

"Okay," Kari agreed, rather sullenly, as she let Kate take her to do just that, and Krissy laid her head on Kurt's shoulder.

"Are we bringing pizza to K too?" Krissy asked very quietly.

"If you want to," Kurt said, and Krissy nodded, burying her face in Kurt's shoulder again.

In fact, it wasn't until after they had all eaten some food — and both Kaleb and Kari had promptly fallen asleep once their stomachs were full and the excitement had died down, though Krissy was stubbornly refusing to go to sleep — that Kurt and Krissy popped in on Logan and K, with two pizza boxes in hand.

"Krissy wanted to make sure K had something to eat," Kurt explained as Krissy picked her head up off his shoulder to watch K very intently.

K was snuggled into Logan's side and gave the little girl a smile. "That was very sweet," she said, sounding worn out. "Are you alright, kiddo?"

Krissy shook her head very gently. "You got hurt," she said with her lower lip poking out.

"I'm fine, sweetheart," K promised. "Just tired."

"Me too," Krissy admitted. She paused. "Can I come hug you?"

"I'd like that," K told her, shifting a little away from Logan so Krissy could do just that.

The little purple elfling climbed into the spot she'd made and snuggled right into K, watching her to make sure she was alright before, not five minutes later, Krissy was asleep — totally exhausted from everything that had happened.

"She's out solid," K said to Kurt.

Kurt nodded and then leaned forward. "Then… could you tell me what it was my father was up to?" he asked, his tail swishing behind him at the thought.

She let out a breath and nodded her head. "He wanted to get his powers back. Apparently, he stored some with the girls as a backup. He didn't have to hurt them to do it. Kari was asleep in his arms when I got there."

Kurt frowned. "And she was blue,  _ja_?" he said, starting to piece it together.

"She was turning blue," she clarified.

Kurt thought about it for a long moment and then nodded. "Yes, that makes sense… Kaleb was born after my father lost his powers," he said slowly. "And that would explain why he can teleport now."

"He hadn't gotten to Krissy yet," K told him.

"And what about you?" Kurt asked, raising an eyebrow.

She bit her lip and brushed some hair behind her ear. "He was going to keep them."

But the lack of an answer just had Kurt frowning harder. "K… what did he ask for?" he asked, suddenly afraid of the answer.

"He asked for a lot, but all he got was blood. He wanted an open favor — as if that was ever going to happen."

"K…" Kurt shook his head and ran a hand over his face, already looking irritated as the pace of his tail increased.

"He was using Sinister's old equipment to augment himself with healing," she replied. "I know it was a mistake, but he was talking about killing them when he was done. Or keeping them."

"And you couldn't call any of us before you gave my father free access to your  _blood_?" Kurt asked incredulously.

"Victor frisked me and took my phone. And comm. And backup comm. He even got the bracelet Tony gave me."

Kurt let out a frustrated noise as he thought of it, shaking his head. "I appreciate you helping Krissy and Kari — truly," he said. "But if he had your blood, it will manifest itself in more than just healing abilities, I can assure you."

"I would have called when I found the place if there had been a signal," K pointed out.

Kurt sighed and nodded. "I know," he said, looking toward Krissy again as the little elfling was snuggled into K in her sleep. "I'd love nothing more than to run him through," he said softly.

"Well, you can probably do that now," she pointed out. "It won't fix anything, but you can do that."

"I'd rather fix the problem more permanently," Kurt said with a sigh. "And I'd hate to find out the spell was still in effect by running myself through and then letting him walk away healing," he added in a decidedly annoyed tone.

"I'm not sorry," K said. "He wanted a lot more than he got, blood magic or no."

"Yes, but what he was asking for…" Kurt shook his head. "We saw it a few years ago, when we were in that alternate future my father controlled," he explained evenly, glaring at the memory. "He had you both under his control, and you…" He turned to K. "You were watching Kate's children, while he kept pushing you to give him some yourself," he told her honestly. "He couldn't manage it even with the control because of your instincts, as I understand it."

"Then it shouldn't be an issue now either," K reasoned.

"It's why he wanted the favor," Kurt said. "If you were willing…" He let out a sigh. "It's what you traded for Kate's life — and why Kate has been upset on your behalf with him."

"If it didn't work there, it won't work here," K said evenly.

"It didn't work because he is a demon in that time," Kurt countered. "He was coated in your blood when I found you with the girls, K. It  _doesn't hurt him_ anymore."

"Then … I guess you better get Billy or someone to get that hex off of you, because I'm going to start cutting things off."

"Be my guest — after Billy is done," Kurt said, gesturing widely. "I'd love nothing more than to be rid of him." He let his tone soften the slightest bit. "I don't want him to come after either of you," he said, gesturing between her and Krissy.

She narrowed her eyes and let out a breath. "Bring it. There has to be a way to fix this. We just need to get our hands on him first."

"That's what Ilyanna said," Kurt said. "That breaking his spells is easier with him than without."

K was nodding as she looked up at Logan, again biting her lip. "How long do you think he'll wait before trying to be an even bigger insufferable pain?"

"I couldn't tell you," Kurt said, sounding tired. "I do know that he won't stop until he gets what he wants, but with healing abilities, his timetable is less compressed."

She frowned deeper and snuggled into Logan's side, pulling Krissy a little tighter. "Crap."

"He will  _not_ get what he wants," Kurt said. "From either of you."

She gave him a dry look. "If there is any way to work around it or make it bite him in the ass, you know I'll do it, but Kurt—" She closed her eyes and sighed. "—I saw how nuts your mother was trying to get to him."

"Yes," Kurt had to agree, then let out a sigh. "We'll figure it out, break the spell on both of us, and I have faith we'll send him where he belongs."

* * *

The Wagner family was a little late down to breakfast that morning, all things considered, and it didn't look like Kate or Kurt had slept well at all. But as soon as the elflings arrived, there was a good mob of people to fuss over both of them — over Kari's beautiful blue fur and over Krissy, who was still not her cheerful self and was quieter than usual.

Chance and Charlie both sat on either side of Krissy with bright, encouraging smiles as Chance informed her that they saved the last of her favorite cereal just for her for breakfast and Charlie pushed the box forward.

"We left the toy too," she said, and Krissy smiled at that.

Kari had finally quit complaining about her color, too — since James had dedicated all of his breakfast time to making sure she had stuff to eat and was continually giving her little kisses and telling her she was pretty.

"Works for his daddy too," K muttered.

"He must learn by observation," Noh said with a small smile her way.

"Then the Elf is going to be in big trouble," K replied.

"Oh?" Noh said with a little laugh. "Why, because his daughter has such an ardent admirer?"

"Tenacious."

"They're young yet," Noh said, waving it off. "At least, that is what I hear our fearless leader saying about your other child," he added in a teasing whisper.

"His boy is fickle in his youth. No reason to worry for at least another ten years," K laughed.

"What?" Noh laughed. "I thought five at most."

"She won't pay attention that early," K said quietly. "At least if she's anything like me. It will take longer."

"Yes, well, I am still looking forward to the moment it clicks," Noh said. "I'm not getting any younger, and I have a long-term bet riding on this," he teased.

"You are betting on my daughter's romantic entanglements?" K asked looking perfectly shocked.

"You have been betting on romantic entanglements since you first arrived," he pointed out.

"Not for ones that young," she pointed out. "Not when there's so much more instant gratification on betting subjects."

"Perhaps," Noh allowed. "But they have been going for so long…" He trailed off and chuckled, leaning back to watch the little ones interacting.

As James continued to openly flirt with Kari, still promising that she was beautiful with the blue fur, Kate had half an eye on the kids, though she was distracted by the news alert that came on — a little twitchy after spending the entire evening the night before convinced that someone against her movie had kidnapped her girls and waiting for something else horrible instead.

But what happened instead was that the anchor who took the mic started off with breaking news: "The Supreme Court has just announced its decision in the registration case, ruling that the registration bill is unconstitutional and violates the basic human rights of mutant citizens."

"Wait." Kate waved her hand at Remy as he was saying something to Jayce on his knee. "Shh." She reached over for the remote to turn up the broadcast.

The anchors on the screen gave the basic breakdown of the decision: that the registration bill was a gross violation of the Constitution, that mutants were entitled to the same rights as every other citizen, that the argument that human rights did not apply to a different sub-species of humanity was medically unsound and bordered on the bigoted arguments of people saying the same of different races… The majority decision was beautifully worded, and none of the X-Men could believe it.

"There's… gotta be a catch," Bobby said after a moment of silence when the news broadcast went to commercial.

"There's always a catch," Kitty agreed with a little frown of her own.

"Last time I talked with Senator Cleary, she said there was already talk of trying the same bill," Scott said. "Different words, same content — it stayed law for years before it was struck down, after all."

"So… same old same old," Bobby summed up, falling back into his chair. "Well, at least nine people in robes agree with us."

"Six," Kate corrected. "There were three dissenting."

"Six," Bobby said, waving his hand her way.

"It's a start," K said quietly, though she pushed her coffee mug away and leaned back into Logan's chest.

"We'll just have to see," Scott said quietly.

….

Translated from German:

" _Du bist sicher, Prinzessin._ " - You are safe, Princess.


	8. Always Bet On Scott

Although the Chicago school hadn’t been scheduled to be finished until a semester behind the LA one, a few things had come together to speed things along. First was simply the fact that Forge and Noh had set up their system early to prevent any of the sabotage that had plagued the LA school, second was that Lorna had come by to visit and ended up cutting the build time in half, and third was that the people working on it wanted to get done fast when there was so much protesting and rioting going on in the city.

 

It had been a few weeks since the Supreme Court had announced its decision, and still, there was no sign of the backlash letting up anytime soon. While the workers were putting up the school, X-Men were being burned in effigy just within eyesight, and it had to be tiring to work that way every day.

 

But… the school went up, and the security systems were sound. No one — _no one_ — was going to get into the school that wasn’t let in. 

 

This one looked a little more space-age than the LA one did, though considering it was the technical school and was being run by a former Guardian of the Galaxy, no one was too surprised. The sleek angles, smooth curves, and overall futuristic look of the whole place gave it an otherworldly feel, and when the sunrise hit the walls just right, it reflected the colors back in beautiful, vibrant hues.

 

“Well at least they can’t complain that it’s an eyesore,” Peter Quill teased Kitty as they watched the sunrise on her new school and he kissed her cheek. “Looks great, really. Almost as beautiful as the headmistress.” 

 

Kitty grinned at him, shook her head, and kissed him back. “That’s a really old line.”

 

“That’s, like, what I’m made of, and you know it.” 

 

“You’ve been on Earth how long?” she teased. “You could learn a few more.”

 

“Nah,” he said with an easy shrug. ”I have been on Earth at your school in Westchester with all the old guys pulling lines. How is that any better?” 

 

Kitty rolled her eyes again and kissed him. “Maybe try learning some new ones from the higher-tech, smart, younger school.” 

 

“Nah, still gonna stick with the oldies but goodies,” he teased, just to watch her roll her eyes at him. 

 

“It really is a cool school,” Leslie Ann sang out as she and a few of the others from the junior squad approached  — bearing food for the party later that afternoon. 

 

“Looks like something crash landed and you build a house out of it,” Brandon said with his arm around Jana’s shoulders as she gave him a dry look. “Well, it  _ does _ .” 

 

“Well, it’s not the same as the one in Westchester, but for a tech school, it works,” Leslie Ann said diplomatically. “But give me the trees and the barn any day.” 

 

“That’s because you’re an Amazon,” Neil pointed out. He grinned up at the pointed edges of the school. “I like it.”

 

“Don’t tell me you’re thinking of going here,” Leslie Ann said in mock horror.

 

“Well, what if I am? I wanna go into programming, remember?”

 

“Yeah, but then I wouldn’t see you all the time,” Leslie Ann pointed out, and Neil grinned at her. 

 

“Not true; you can come visit.”

 

“Mmm, no. You’re just going to have to stay in Westchester, dragon breath,” she decided. “I’m not commuting.” 

 

Jana leaned over to Kitty and Peter Quill with a little grin. “Ignore them. They’ve been doing this since you guys announced this school was going to be tech-based.” 

 

Kitty leaned forward with a smile. “We already got his application, actually.”

 

“Yeah, now if only he can get up the courage to tell Leslie Ann that’s where he’s going,” Brandon said with a shrug. “It’s her decision anyway; her family’s coming to Chicago, and  _ she’s  _ the one staying behind.”

 

“For the  _ team _ ,” Jana said in a tone that clearly said she couldn’t believe Brandon was questioning that decision. 

 

“Yeah, I’ve heard, I got it,” Brandon said, holding up both hands in a gesture of surrender when Jana looked like she might press him on it. 

 

Kitty and Peter Quill glanced at each other and shared little smirks at the teenage drama before they headed down to where the other X-Men were starting to gather as the press  — and protesters  — set up shop.

 

While the adults were dealing with the press, the kids managed to slip away to explore, not that it missed Anton’s eye. “I never thought that I’d be happy that she wasn’t comin’ to Chicago with us,” he muttered to Scott. 

 

“He’s a good kid,” Scott said. “And easy to keep an eye on,” he added with half a smirk. 

 

“Be easier to keep an eye on when he’s here and she’s in New York,” he said.

 

Scott smirked. “Yeah, I’m sure.”. 

 

“It’s a hard choice, you know. Seein’ her training to fight these idiots in the street or dealin’ with a boyfriend? Not fair, man.” 

 

“It’s her choice,” Scott said diplomatically, though he let out a sigh. “I did suggest that she could at least finish out high school with you and Rachel, if it makes you feel any better. She insisted that she wanted to stay on the team. And she  _ is  _ good on that team, Anton.” 

 

“Yeah, I know,” Anton said. “Doesn’t make me feel better, but I know.”

 

“Trust me, I know,” Scott said. “You’re at the school  _ my  _ daughter will be teaching at.”

 

At that, Anton smirked the slightest bit. “Want me to make sure your son-in-law gets hit every once in a while, just to keep him on his feet?”

 

“I wouldn’t say no to that,” Scott laughed. 

 

“She’s due pretty soon here, ain’t she?” Anton asked, looking around to see that, yes, Rachel was gone from the party.

 

“Hank says two more weeks,” Scott said. “She can’t wait.”

 

“That how  _ my  _ Rachel was,” Anton laughed. 

 

“They’ll be having a little girl, too,” Scott said quietly. “Hank thought it was a boy up until last week when he  _ finally  _ got a clear picture.”

 

“Must run in the family; I know Chance did that to y’all.”

 

“I don’t know; I wouldn’t put it past Bobby’s genes to pull pranks.”

 

“Gotta be weird, thinkin’ of him as the father of your granddaughter.”

 

“Please don’t remind me; when people do that, I get the urge to deck him again, and there’s press here,” Scott said with a little smirk. 

 

“Don’t know that I’d handle it any better, honestly,” Anton laughed.

 

“Don’t think there  _ is  _ a way to handle it,” Scott agreed, watching as the teenagers came back down the way, grinning and laughing together. “Good thing you don’t have a reason to hit yours.” 

 

“Yet,” Anton said, shaking his head as Leslie Ann came running up to him. 

 

“You so have to take the tour, Dad,” she said with a grin. “Your suite is gonna look so cool, and you’ve got an office and everything!”

 

“We’re going to want you to come in for a few weeks at the other schools for the law preparedness class, you know that, right?” Scott told Anton as Leslie Ann started to lead him off.

 

“Yeah, I’ve already got it worked out with Storm and everybody; don’t worry,” Anton said, waving Scott off. “Go talk to the press, Scott. I’m sure if you stand close enough to Bobby, nothing newsworthy will happen at  _ all _ .” 

 

“You’re hilarious,” Scott said, rolling his eyes, though he made his way down anyway to stand with Kitty as she was gleefully talking up all the best points of her new school. 

The mansion was finally starting to get a little less busy with both the Chicago and LA schools built. Several students and staff who would be living there full-time had already started to trickle out, though of course, there were a few people who were waiting until the fall, making the most out of the summer in Westchester before moving on to other things.

 

And obviously, Rachel and Bobby weren’t going to Chicago until  _ after  _ the baby was born, which was why that morning, when Rachel could hear Hank’s thoughts that her scent had changed, she let out a long sigh and pushed her coffee away from herself.

 

_ So should I tell Bobby and Dad or do you think it would kill them to wait that long?  _ she projected out to Hank with a little smirk, both curious to know his answer and teasing at the same time. 

 

_ I think we should start getting ready to meet your little one,  _ Hank said with a kind smile.

 

_ I’ll follow you,  _ Rachel said as she stood to leave, and Hank led her down to the med bay  — though of course, it wasn’t long at all before both Scott and Bobby were there as well. And for once, Scott wasn’t about to hit Bobby when he thought about the fact that Rachel was pregnant because of him. 

 

“You feeling alright?” Scott asked as soon as he arrived, though that just got Rachel to roll her eyes at him.

 

“I’m  _ fine _ ,” she said. 

 

Bobby, on the other hand, was already icing up so she could hold his hands and not worry about breaking anything. “Sure, sure, but we’ve seen a few people through this, and there’s usually yelling down the line,” he said as he sat down next to her.

 

She gave him a dry look. “Thank you for that reminder. So much.”

 

“I’m just saying,” Bobby said quietly.

 

He wasn’t wrong. It was only about ten minutes later that Rachel did in fact start to yell at Bobby, Scott, and Hank  — all at once. And while they had all three been prepared for the yelling, they perhaps hadn’t been prepared for the fact that the whole lab started to heat up with Phoenix fire  — until Tyler found a dampening field and the room started to cool off, to Bobby’s immense relief. 

 

But finally, finally, the little girl came into the world, yelling as much as her mother was  — and totally bald. She cried at Hank all the way up until he set her in her mother’s arms, and then she curled up as Rachel reached out instinctively, telepathically, and gently acquainted herself with the little girl. 

 

“She looks just like you,” Bobby told her with a grin. “You know, minus the bald part.” 

 

“It’ll grow in,” Rachel said, still cradling the little girl. “Besides, she looks like  _ you _ .”

 

By that point, Annie had arrived as well, excited to meet the new little one, and when she saw the three of them, she let out a delighted laugh and skipped over. “Oh, she’s perfect,” she declared in a melting sort of voice. “What’s her name?”

 

“Willow,” Bobby said as Rachel tipped the little girl into his arms and he sat back with her, smiling almost sloppily. 

 

“Willow Jean Drake,” Rachel added, half to the gathered group and half to Hank so that he’d know what he had to write on the birth certificate.

 

“I like it,” Scott said quietly and in a hoarse voice that had both Rachel and Annie sharing little smiles. 

 

“You want to hold her?” Rachel asked, tipping her head toward Bobby and Willow as Scott very quietly sat down next to both of them.

 

Bobby handed the little girl off, and Scott grinned down at her and rearranged her slightly to see her better. “Hey,” he said quietly, and that was what got Rachel to start tearing up when she realized he was doing the same. 

 

“No, stop that, both of you,” Annie said, already starting to cry herself when the two Summerses were still trying to play it off. 

 

“She’s perfect,” Scott tried to tell Rachel  — at least  _ attempting  _ conversation, though that went out the window too, and he just opted for silence as he stared down at the little girl in pure wonder. 

 

“Of course she is,” Bobby put in. “She looks just like Rachel.” 

 

Kitty came in with coffee for all of the group that she knew was gathered and stopped cold. “Oh … K did not lie to me. I hope someone is taking pictures.” 

 

“Oh, that’s a good point,” Annie said, smiling Kitty’s way, though Kitty could very obviously see where she had tried to wipe her mascara and hadn’t gotten all of it. 

 

“What did K say?” Bobby asked, waving her over. 

 

“That Papa Scott face was going to be as good or better than Daddy Scott face,” Kitty said with a smile as she set the coffee pot down. “And … she won the other bet too.” 

 

“What bet?” Bobby asked curiously, though Rachel was already looking betrayed at what Kitty had in her head.

 

“One you weren’t running,” Kitty said before she headed over to peek over Scott’s shoulder with an ‘aww’. 

 

_ I can’t believe people bet on him crying,  _ Rachel projected to Kitty.  _ At least  _ I  _ have an excuse _ . 

 

_ It wasn’t mean-spirited,  _ Kitty defended.  _ She said it would be ‘sweet and overwhelmed’.  _

 

_ Well, it is, but still…  _ Rachel shook her head. “Dad, I think Kitty wants to say hello,” she prompted Scott, who finally looked up at Kitty, cleared his throat, and very,  _ very  _ gently handed over the little girl.

 

“Her name is Willow Jean,” he told her in a voice that definitely fit ‘sweet and overwhelmed.’ 

 

“Oh, that’s so sweet,” Kitty said, though she didn’t really look like she wanted to hold her. “Are you sure someone maybe … less… likely to go intangible might be a better call?”   

 

“You do just fine with all the other kids,” Annie pointed out. “The only time you had problems that I saw was when Jayce was on the way,” she added, this time with a distinctly teasing glint in her eyes, though she stepped forward to help Kitty out anyway. “Let me,” she said, curling up immediately with the little girl as soon as she did so. “And would you please send someone with a camera? I’d love pictures of my granddaughter.”

 

“On the way, Grannie Annie,” Kitty called out before simply rising up through the ceiling of the lab. 


	9. Designed To Hurt And Humiliate

The joy of little Willow's arrival had spread through the mansion, and everyone was tickled about their new temporary resident. Everyone was making comparisons on who they thought she looked like, and as Jubilee and Kitty were insisting to Kate that they were definitely  _not_ in the market for another little one, their merry making was interrupted when the news station cut from a nasty rally that was upset about the Supreme Court ruling to a rather reasonable-looking group from Graydon Creed's Friends of Humanity — were pushing to take matters into their own hands.

"If the government refuses to protect the people, then the people must protect themselves," the leader was saying. "We're not even asking for them to be registered at this point — or even to have them segregated. We just think that it would be best for everyone if we knew who was who — if even those that don't have a 'physical' mutation had a way to warn us that they were a potential threat to our kids and families."

"Yeah, I've been wishing there was a sign for idiots and bigots for years," Jubilee grumbled with her arms crossed when she heard the argument the guy was making.

"So, the Friends of Humanity has developed a tagging system," the leader said, still sounding perfectly reasonable. "A red warning flag for anyone who sees it — so we know just who we're dealing with."

The leader went on to describe how the tagging was perfectly reasonable compared to everything else that had been put forward and how the Friends of Humanity were just trying to make sure that humanity was safe, and so on and so on — as the mood of the group of X-Men dropped the more he spoke.

"Oh,  _that's_ never been done before," Logan said in as dry and sarcastic a tone that any of them had ever heard.

"It's the same old tired story," Erik agreed with real steel to his tone.

"So it's a cattle kind of thing then," K said, nodding slowly. "Lovely."

"Not the first time someone's called us animals," Tyler pointed out.

"Some of us are more used to it than others, Whiskers," Logan replied.

"My question is: what's the deal with the tags themselves?" Kitty asked. "I mean, it's not like we don't know there's a way to miniaturize dampeners now."

"We could bait them and find out," K said, leaning back in her chair.

"If they're trying to come across as 'reasonable,' I don't think they'd hit an X-Man with that," Kate said with a distinct frown. "I mean, we've kind of proven that we can bust them out publicly."

"Gotta be something we can do to see how they work," K replied.

"I could just walk in and grab some," Kitty offered.

"They're bound to use them sooner or later on someone we'll see," Bobby pointed out, looking up from Willow for a second to give his two cents. "I mean, we've been running ourselves ragged trying to keep up with every lynch mob that comes up. They bring out a tag, I doubt we won't see it."

"And have Hank and Forge look it over like the inhibitor rounds," Kurt said.

"Well, there's one good thing nobody's pointed out yet," Kate said.

"It's not legal?" K said. "Like that's ever stopped anyone."

"Well, no, it's not legal, but I  _meant_ that Billy hasn't shown up," Kate said.

"Oh yeah, our personal harbinger of doom," Bobby agreed.

"We've pretty well shown he only does that when it's end of the world, nothing less," K replied.

"Yeah, but he showed up for the inhibitor rounds. So… this is not that bad," Kate insisted.

"Fair point," K conceded. "But I think that the inhibitors were just a step stone to something worse."

"These are just, at face value, what they are," Jubilee said, pulling a horrible face as she thought of them.

"This is what happens when we make any progress," Bobby said, gesturing toward the screen with one hand and a sigh. "Happens every time."

"We'll find a way to deal with it," Scott said. "It's not legal, like K said. If we have to, we'll go after every tag and remove it."

"Self defense is legal, though," K said, tipping her head to the side.

"Self-defense is very shaky when we're concerned," Scott pointed out. "Usually, they turn it around and say  _they_ are acting in self-defense."

"Come on, Papa Scott, give me something here," K said, putting her chin on her crossed arms.

Scott smirked the slightest bit at the nickname. "Well, like Kate said, at least Billy isn't here."

"He's going to be so offended," Kate said with a smirk. "We really need to invite him and Teddy down for actual visits or something so he's not just a doom patrol."

"What part of 'the door is open' is hard for them to understand?" Logan asked. "Or does Erik need to grampa guilt trip?"

"I've already told them I'd like to see their twins more often," Erik said with a little smirk. "They did just turn three; I've been informed that is a handful of an age by both William and Theodore."

"So tell them to bring 'em over and we'll play with 'em," Kate pointed out. "Better yet…" She pulled out her phone and started texting Billy just exactly how much he was missed around the place.

_You need to come visit. I am Abracadabra deprived._

_Didn't Rachel literally just have a baby?_

_I didn't say I was baby-deprived. I said I was Abracadabra deprived._

_Stop calling my kids that; they're going to respond to it._

_And your point is?_ Kate smirked.  _Come over and visit. Come meet the newest Summers and see the Papa Scott face. And give your grandpa Great-Grandpa Face. It'll be great in stereo, I'm sure._

…  _Alright, but I'm warning you now that the twins are being terrors lately._

_What else is new? I have a little girl who still sometimes gets upset when she remembers she's blue until her best friend gives her kisses. Relentlessly. And then Kurt has a small cardiac episode over the whole thing. It's gotta be something about that age._

_I'm pretty sure that's not about the age, Kate,_ Billy replied.

_No, it's definitely because she's got Kurt's flirty genes._

_And yours._

_Yes, but it's funnier if I point out to Kurt that he can't get mad that his daughter is finding ways to get kisses when he does the same. Exact. Thing._

_Who's giving out the kisses, anyway?_

_Oh, exactly who you think._

_So he can't complain there either. I mean, mini version of the best friend. Perfect complement._

_See? This is why I need you around, Billy. You are missing out on things, and I need more people to laugh at my husband and our kids._

_I already said I'd come visit, Kate._

_You used to DIE of excitement at a mansion invitation._

_I also used to listen to Eli when he said he was the team leader._

_Oh, no. Never bring that up, Billy. That was a bad look for all of us._

Billy shot her back a laughing emoji, and then Kate glanced up at the group, grinning crookedly. "He'll come," she said, shooting off a quick,  _You got time to change the kids and put shoes on them before I start sending bamfs. Be there or I'm coming to get you,_ before she added, "Any minute now."

"Well, that's settled," Kurt chuckled at her.

"I am incredibly persuasive when I want to be."

"You're incredibly pushy when you want to be," he corrected.

"And does it get the job done? Yes. Yes, it does."

"Then we should make sure that there aren't any more nasty messages near the gate when they get here," Kurt suggested.

"Probably a good idea," Kate agreed.

"I'll help," Scott said with a little nod. "I can scrape it off more easily," he added, tapping the side of his head by his eyes.

"Gotta give Papa Scott his chores list," K said as she smirked up at him. "Keep him busy so the joints don't freeze up and he gets a touch a' tha rheumatizz."

"You're hilarious," Scott said, rolling his eyes.

"I'll have your tonic and blanket waiting for you," she promised.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Scott muttered, shaking his head at her as he headed out to go down to the gate and get to work.

"He's really not that old," Annie said, reaching over the gently push K's shoulder.

"I know," K said, nodding her head. "But if I don't pick on him, how will he know that I love him? He doesn't listen when I tell him outright."

"Funny, I don't seem to have that problem," Annie said straight-faced.

"Well, I can promise you if I tackled him with a kiss, he'd turn purple and never speak to me again."

"That's true," Annie laughed. "You already turn him red just teasing."

"Not my fault he has the butt of a man half his age."

"And don't I know it," Annie teased.

"I'd like to not be part of this conversation," Rachel said, shaking her head.

"You know," K said, narrowing her eyes at Rachel, "I have seen him out of uniform. I could just … project it. Real loud. Give you the slow pan down ..."

"Please don't," Rachel said, making a face.

Logan made a little noise and wrapped his arm around K, covering her mouth before he gave her a kiss on the cheek. " _Stop it_."

"So… I don't know what's happening here, but I'm pretty sure it would have been funnier five minutes ago," Teddy said as he and Billy walked through the door with Sammy and Harry in tow — both of whom immediately ran to tackle Erik in hugs.

"K's trying to freak out Rachel," Logan said.

"And Logan," Kurt added.

"So what else is new?" Teddy laughed as he sat down with the group.

"It's good to see you boys around again," Annie said with a warm smile.

"Kate made us an offer we weren't allowed to refuse," Billy explained, grinning back at her as he sat down by Teddy.

"Daddy said that Aunt Kate was gonna come  _make_  us have fun," Sammy explained to Erik with a little giggle.

"And then Dad said that was idrii-culous and made us get dressed," Harry added.

"Well, I'm very glad he did," Erik said with a little smile. "You're both so big I didn't realize how long it's been since I saw you last until now."

"We play with Zoe and Bashir," Harry said.

"Allllll the time," Sammy agreed. "Really busy!"

"Zoe's bossy," Harry told Erik.

"Kari, Cody, and Jolie are in the playroom," K told him from across the room.

"Ooh, let's go play!" Sammy declared happily, grabbing her brother's hand, and off they went in a jumble of giggles and squeals.

"They attach to people so easily now," Teddy said with a proud sort of smile.

"You two have done wonders for them," K agreed before she got up and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"And they've done wonders for us," he agreed. "You should hear them talk about Billy whenever he gets distracted by the future."

"It's not funny," Billy said, though Teddy was already grinning.

"Looks like it's funny," K pointed out before she offered them both some coffee.

"It's great," Teddy promised. "They just stop everything to watch him and start trying to guess if it's good or bad and when Daddy will disappear again and what kind of treats he'll come back with."

"I… try to apologize for when I leave unexpectedly," Billy defended.

"It's adorable," Teddy laughed. "They get so confused by old pictures of him without the galaxies, too. They've never seen him otherwise."

"He does well like this," K told him, bringing them both their coffee.

"I'm still getting used to it," Billy admitted. "It's been two years and I'm still feeling my way around."

"That's how most of us feel all the time," Jubilee pointed out.

"Yeah, I know," he said, then paused to thank K for the coffee. "So when is everyone headed to the schools? Don't you open your doors to the flood in a few months?"

"This one's open all the time," Logan pointed out. "The others will be just before school starts."

"Sounds like a party," Teddy said.

"It's something," he agreed. "Why, you're not hopin' to send 'em off already are you?"

"No way," Billy said, shaking his head. "We waited for years; they're staying here. And going to school here if they can make the cut."

"Pretty sure they have the references to get in," Jubilee said with a grin.

"Yeah, we'll just see about powers," Teddy pointed out. "They may decide to be Avengers like us."

"They let anybody be an Avenger," Logan chuckled.

"I think we should be insulted, Billy," Teddy laughed. "Should we be?"

"We can pretend to be," Billy laughed right back.

"Either way," Kate said, seizing on Billy's arm. "It has been  _way_ too long. We want to hear all about the twins and how things are going and just… everything. You only show up here for emergencies, so how are we supposed to know that the twins are as cute as they are?"

Billy shook his head at her but laughed all the same. "Yeah, yeah, alright. I heard you," he said.

"And," Teddy said with a sneaky smile, "we have pictures."

"Well there you go." Kate made a "go on" motion with both hands, and the boys broke into matching grins as they showed off the adventures of Sammy and Harry.

* * *

As it turned out, the team didn't have to  _go_ anywhere to find the Friends of Humanity's tagging system. In fact, it had only been a day since the whole thing was announced before a woman turned up at the front gate of the Chicago school asking for help. It was the middle of June, but she was wearing a quarter-length shirt trying to hide where she had been tagged in the arm the previous day.

Quill was the one to let her in at the gate and lead her back into the school, which was getting steadily more populated every day as the overcrowded Westchester mansion slowly trickled out its residents.

"You're in luck," Quill told her. "We just got a couple of staff members that know what to do with this kind of thing. We got a medical student here, and the astrophysics teacher's girlfriend's an EMT, and the headmistress can pull it out no problem as long as it's not in too deep."

"Just as long as it comes  _out_ ," the woman said, rubbing her arm self-consciously as they headed down to where America was chatting with both Lucy and Tyler — who had agreed to share school nurse duties whenever the other was gone.

"Got your first patient in the new place," Quill called out brightly as Lucy made her way over with a small smile.

"What happened?"

"I went to the pool," the woman said dryly. "That's all I did. And then I got shot with this." She rolled up her sleeve to show Lucy the bright red and fairly large tag that was sticking out of her arm.

"Well that sucks," America said, jumping to her feet from where she was sitting on one of the counters.

"No kidding," the woman said, then let out a little sigh. "I don't even know how they knew I was a mutant. I never use my powers, and I look the same as anyone."

"Do any of your neighbors know?" Lucy asked as she led the woman to a scan so that she could see how deeply it was embedded and if there would be any issues getting it out.

"A couple," the woman admitted.

"Well there ya go," America said, shaking her head. "People suck."

"In this case? Yes, yes they do," Lucy agreed as she started up the scan and then gave the woman a reassuring smile as Tyler looked over her shoulder at the results and nodded.

"Well, that's good," he said under his breath.

"What?"

"It's not in there too deep," Tyler told her. "And there's no microfilaments or anything spreading out to make the extraction worse."

"It can get worse?" the woman asked with raised eyebrows.

"Oh, always," America said dryly, which earned her a solid kick from her girlfriend.

"Let's just call Shadowcat down here to take care of this, shall we?" Lucy asked kindly.

Kitty made her way directly into the medical suite via the ceiling, though their guest hadn't seen her enter. When Kitty saw the tag up close, she pulled a face and shook her head. "Oh, that looks painful," she said, tipping her head to the side to look at it better. "How long have you had it?"

"Since this morning," the woman said, making a face at the tag.

"Well, it can't stay there," Kitty said as she raised her hand toward the tag. "Do you mind terribly if I ask you a question first? Can you use your ability?"

The woman frowned and tipped her head to the side. "I don't usually use it anyway."

"I know a lot of people don't like to, but it's just a point of interest for me," Kitty said. "I have a hard time believing that it's just a tag."

The woman let out a sigh and nodded, raising one hand, but nothing happened, and she shook her head. "Sorry, no."

"Well then you're lucky you came here. Two part-process," Kitty said before she first passed her hand through the tag — disrupting the circuits hidden within — and then took a hold of it and phased it out of the woman's arm. "How about now?"

She frowned slightly but raised her hand again, and this time, one of the tools by Lucy lifted just an inch off the table before she closed her hand and it fell again.

"I'm sure you won't be heartbroken when I tell you I'm going to keep this," Kitty said, holding the tag up.

"Yeah, I'm definitely not sentimental about that thing," the woman agreed, waving her hand. "Keep it, destroy it — I don't really care.

"And are your abilities  _fully_ restored?" Kitty asked, tapping the tag against the palm of her other hand.

The woman nodded. "I've only ever managed an inch or two anyway," she said with a light sigh toward the tool she'd moved.

"That might improve with practice," Kitty told her with a little smile.

"That's alright. The last thing I need is to accidentally convince my neighbors the place is haunted on top of everything else," the woman said with a dry smirk.

"I don't know … sounds like they're asking for it," Quill said with a shrug. "I'd totally haunt them if it was me. Or set the Ravagers after them. One or the other."

The woman waved her hand. "It's fine. As long as the creeps with the gun don't come back, this is almost the second-worst neighbor experience I've had," she said with a small smile. "The last ones set their apartment on fire accidentally."

"Sounds like they were asking for it," Quill said before he offered the woman a hand up. "Walk you out if you're done."

"Please," the woman agreed, following Quill out of the medical lab and leaving the rest of the Chicago staff with the tag.

"Well," Tyler said slowly, turning toward Kitty, "at least it doesn't have microfilaments."

"Yet," Kitty pointed out. "I'm going to go tear this thing apart and see what the heck it is. Hopefully it's just a micro-suppressor. I would not be surprised if it was more than that."

"Right, because why go simple with the crazies?" America said, shaking her head.

"Would you let me know what you find out?" Lucy asked. "It might help me when I get more cases down here — and I'm sure I will."

"Of course," Kitty said with a nod, though she held it up for her to see. "The design would be nasty to pull out, though."

"I noticed," Lucy said with a frown.

"I'll let my dad know we've got one here," Tyler suggested. "He'll probably want to take a look — you know, seeing as Westchester doesn't have a Shadowcat to do their extractions in a pinch," he added with a smirk Kitty's way.

"Yeah. Looks like we're in this now."


	10. Return of the Guardbody

Senator Cleary stared at the tag on her desk, her eyebrows high on her head as she examined it. The embedded part was long and jagged, and the tag was overly obvious. Everything about it was designed to hurt and humiliate, and she was entirely sure that she hated it.

"That," she said with a distinct tone of distaste, "does  _not_ belong inside  _anyone_."

"No kidding," Scott said with one eyebrow raised from where he was sitting across from her. "You  _did_ want to see it," he added, gesturing to the tag. "Well, there it is."

"I did ask," Cleary said, starting to wonder if those words were going to be etched into her tombstone at this point for how often she had been saying them lately. She picked up the tag to examine it and frowned deeper. "And this was inside someone?"

Scott nodded. "Yeah, a woman who came by one of our schools looking to get it out," he explained. He smirked for just a moment. "We didn't steal it."

"That's not what I—" She shook her head. "Thank you," she corrected herself, still examining the tag in front of her. "I'm not sure if this will help or hurt the registration debate, to be honest," she added as she finally set it down again. "I can already hear Robbins tellin' me that these kind of measures wouldn't be  _necessary_ if the revamped registration law goes through."

"It wouldn't be necessary if people stopped trying to justify being hateful based on a trick of nature."

"Trick of nature," Cleary repeated with a little smirk. "And here I thought all those experts were sayin' it was the natural course of life on earth."

"It is, but it's not like any of us asked for it," Scott pointed out.

"True," Cleary agreed before she got to her feet. "Thanks for comin' down again. I'm sure your plate is full with — well —  _all_ of this. I saw the announcement about the school in Chicago. Congratulations on the early opening," she added with a warm smile.

"Thanks," he replied. "We're hoping everything goes smoothly for them. They've been working hard to make a safe haven."

"I wish you the best of luck with that, really," she said as the two of them headed out of her office. "The more I learn about this issue, the more I'm sure you  _need_  somethin' like that."

Cleary was the first out of the door, though as soon as she had opened it — and before either of them could react or see the danger — a single shot rang out, and Cleary collapsed right in front of Scott while Secret Service agents responded in a rush a split second later, coming out of seemingly nowhere to pin down the shooter while one agent stayed with Cleary to assess the damage alongside Scott.

The damage was obvious — and bad. She'd been shot in the chest and was bleeding badly, already unconscious by that time. It was severe enough that it felt like far too long before the ambulance arrived, and even without having seen the whole thing go down, it was obvious that the EMTs didn't like her chances by the looks they shared as they loaded her up.

The whole thing happened fast — and, of course, since Scott had been right there, he spent a great deal of time after that answering questions for the authorities. But when the agents finally moved on, he wasn't surprised to find that he'd missed several calls from Annie — who had probably seen that there was trouble in Washington and assumed the worst.

He called her back quickly and again wasn't surprised at how relieved she sounded. "What happened?" she asked once she'd finished saying how glad she was to hear his voice. "They're not giving any details on the news."

"Someone shot Cleary," Scott said heavily. "I'm not sure if she's alright or not; it didn't look good."

Annie sucked in a gasp of surprise. "She… that's awful!" she said, clearly mad and upset and worried all in one breath. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, just peachy." He let out a sigh. "I'll be back before you know it."

"Just watch out for yourself," Annie said in a clearly worried tone.

"I always do," Scott answered, trying to force a smile.

Annie laughed lightly, then paused. "Are you sure you're alright? She's a good friend at this point — at least  _I_  think so…"

He paused, clearly a little shaken by the negative twist the day had taken. "Yeah, you get used to it eventually," he replied. "They won't tell me anything. Just have to wait and see what happens."

"Well, I'm going to send her flowers," Annie said primly, already deciding that this was how it was going to be. "She should have some when she pulls through. Those hospital rooms are  _dreary_."

* * *

It was three days before Cleary was entirely out of the woods, with the news reporting that she was in 'critical condition' throughout every update for a maddeningly long amount of time. Three days of everyone in Washington — including the likes of Robbins and the president, even — putting out statements left and right of support and well-wishes, though it was painfully obvious that not one of them had expected her to pull through.

So when the news broke that she was stable, it was a surprise to just about everyone involved.

It took her another few days after that before she was allowed to be discharged, but by the time the last day of her hospital stay rolled around, it was clear to her staff as well as the hospital workers that she wanted to get back to  _work_.

She was already making calls from her bed — and directing her chief of staff on the rest of the calls that she wanted done. Debate had ground to a near halt on the revived registration bill, replaced by a lot of well-wishing and then eventually finger-pointing, but she was already asking to get back to business, honestly pissed off that someone had  _shot_ her — so she was going to make sure to make everyone's life hell by doing even more.

Her chief of staff, Linda, was by her side most of the day at this point, so when Cleary mentioned that she wanted to go back to the Congress floor, Linda raised an eyebrow.

"You're not supposed to be on your feet, ma'am," she pointed out.

"Then tell someone to find me a chair — I'm goin'," Cleary said.

"Tell me that again when you're clear of drugs," Linda replied.

Cleary waved her hand. "Please. I'm not gonna sit here and let these people think they scared me off. I need to get back out there as soon as I can."

"Little bit vindictive," Linda said, though in a tone that said she approved.

"That's how you win in this business," Cleary replied.

"You're going to need more protection then," Linda told her.

Cleary let out a sigh. "Fine," she said. She sorted a few of the get-well cards before she smiled slightly. "I might know someone who could have some professional suggestions."

* * *

There was a heavy concentration of security already on Capitol Hill because Cleary had wanted to pop in for a quick appearance, so Scott had already been through several checkpoints by the time he got to Cleary's office.

"Well," Cleary said as she wheeled herself into the room with a broad smile. "Long time no see."

"Surprised to see you back to work already," Scott replied.

She smirked at him for a moment. "I'm not about to let these—" She waved her hand. "— _people_  stop me from doin' my job."

"So what can I do for you today?" Scott asked with a little smirk. "To help you do your job."

Her smirk widened into a grin. "Well, you seem to have a little experience with the people I've got after me. I was hoping to get a little professional advice on how best to prevent a repeat performance." She tapped her chest lightly. "Next time might not go so well for me."

"Well," Scott said, tipping his head to the side slightly. "I'd say there's a few steps you can take that I'm sure the Secret Service has already suggested…"

She waved her hand. "Yeah, I know about the vests and all that. I'm asking what I can do to avoid getting  _shot_  in the first place, not to make sure the bullets don't kill me."

"Yeah," Scott said. He leaned back for a moment. "The other thing you could do is a show of force. Bring someone from the team — that's what  _I_  do when I do public addresses."

Cleary raised an eyebrow at him before she leaned forward. "You wouldn't mind? I don't know how long this will last, and I know your team has plenty to worry about otherwise."

"We can switch out. I doubt any one of them would be good to keep around on a long-term basis."

"That would be lovely — thank you," Cleary said, smiling widely. "And it would give Robbins a heart attack, and that's always a plus."

"Oh. Absolutely," Scott smirked.

"Well." Cleary leaned back in her chair. "I'm goin' back tomorrow to hold their feet to the fire."

"Just let me know what time you want your new bodyguard to show."

Cleary grinned and reached out to shake Scott's hand. "Thanks for this. Really. We're gonna give 'em hell."

* * *

From day one upon her return, Cleary wasn't holding anything back. And it was hard to argue with her when, for the first few days, there was such an obvious visual reminder of the fact that someone had tried to kill her over this bill. Nobody wanted to align themselves with the assassin, and so nobody was willing to debate her, pushing back the bill to focus on "other matters," which Cleary wasn't having.

For the first few days, Storm had watched her call every senator she knew a coward and worse than that as she insisted that anyone who supported this bill had better put their money where their mouth was and show their vote so the country could see just who the idiots were so that come November, the people could get rid of them.

She was getting plenty of support, too, with people outraged over the whole situation and people who were trying to avoid the negative press that Cleary was bringing down on anyone who wavered.

Which was, of course, just making her a bigger and bigger target as the Senate finally relented and scheduled a vote and the news was already praising Cleary as presidential potential.

So Cleary was surprised on the day of the vote to find that Logan had drawn the straw for playing the part of her bodyguard, since she knew that, of  _all_ the X-Men, he was one that least liked being in Washington — let alone spending all his time with a politician.

"Scott send you?" she asked as she sat down at her desk to gather her notes for the day.

"Yep," he replied from the doorway, his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. "Figured you needed a little more experienced back up."

"Well, hopefully this will die down once that ridiculous bill dies," Cleary assured him. "Last count, the Majority Whip said it was going down in a landslide, so this is all just…" She gestured around herself. "Window dressing."

"We'll see how it goes," he said quietly.

She smiled at him as she finished gathering her notes. "I appreciate this, you know," she said, putting her things in her briefcase. "I know there are other things you could be doin'."

"Don't worry 'bout it," Logan replied with a tip of his head. "I don't mind scarin' off little piss ants from time to time."

"I just hope to see a few of them turn tail," she laughed. "You know Robbins and his friends have been  _furious_ the X-Men are in the Capitol all the time now."

"Then they'll be tickled and real  _quiet_ about that part today," Logan told her.

She smiled at him and then gestured with one hand. "Well. Shall we?" she asked.

He led the way, as if he'd done it himself a hundred times before - perfectly confident on the path as he kept watch, and as promised, even the press that had been swarming her when she stepped out into the public areas were holding back more than they had been all the way out to the floor.

It was, in political terms, a total failure for the supporters of the bill.  _No one_ wanted their name on that thing when the spotlight was on them so heavily, and Cleary was sure that having Logan nearby glaring at several of them wasn't inspiring them to vote against her either. So by the time it was all said and done, she could count on one hand the people who had still voted for the registration — even if there were several abstaining votes that had her rolling her eyes at the total lack of spines around the Hill.

"What did I tell you?" she said to Logan as she primly got to her feet, headed for the press conference — where she was more interested in his protection, honestly, since it was more open.

As Cleary addressed the press, Logan kept his eyes on the crowd. He hated dealing with politicians, and the whole security detail was annoying when there were so many Secret Service around trying to do the same thing — only they were carrying guns. The one thing he could always rely on was a gun where it  _shouldn't_ be, unless of course, there was that much Secret Service.

So it was just a matter of watching for someone doing or saying something particularly stupid, and he saw the flash of a gun barrel under a coat about two minutes into Cleary's recount of how things had gone down. Logan tapped the Secret Service guy nearest to him in the arm with a quick 'cover her' before he darted off into the crowd, his gaze locked on the guy who very obviously had no business carrying a banned weapon in DC.

Of course, as soon as the would be shooter saw Logan headed his way, he turned tail, but it was a quick chase that ended in a tackle — and, moments later, a pile up of Secret Service members. When the crowd around them cleared, the gun was still in the guy's hand, though he was out cold, and Logan was sure to just put his hands up as he backed away from the mess. It was clean. No one but the gunman was even scraped up — and considering that Logan was in his yellow and black uniform with no pouches or hidden pockets, it was pretty clear that there was no way he could have planted it.

The Secret Service were quick to take the guy into custody as the press once more swarmed Cleary as the scene was cleared to ask about this most recent threat on her life — but she looked shaken and not as confident as before. She quickly finished up with the reporters and made a beeline for the car waiting for her, letting the smile drop as soon as she and Logan were inside.

"Thank you," she said in a hoarse voice as she tried to come down from the panic.

"Forget it," he replied easily. "I didn't do much."

"Don't sell yourself short — that could'a been bad, and we both know it," Cleary said, shaking her head before she put a hand to her forehead and leaned over.

"No," he said, shaking his head. "If he'd have gotten the gun out any further, I would have stepped in front of it. You were always gonna be fine."

She looked surprised, and her mouth parted in a little 'o' of understanding. "That's why they sent you today, isn't it?"

"I know what to look for better than the others," he said. "I'm the one that covers Scott when we go to things like this."

"I've seen you both give speeches — well, him speaking and you there," she corrected herself as she rubbed her temple and then took in a bracing breath. "Still. Thank you — and thank the team for me, please."

"Sure."

From there, the Secret Service took over once Cleary was home, and it was only a few hours after that before the news broke that the shooter had been a longtime friend of the Vice President's — which had caused such an uproar in Washington that the focus was off of Cleary on onto the VP.

Still, Cleary made it a point after the adrenaline crash and after she had her legs underneath her a little better to call Westchester herself to tell Scott everything that had happened — and thank him, again, for the help.

"I'd be dead now if it weren't for your team," Cleary told him when she'd finished. "I can't thank you enough."

"We're all just relieved it went as well as it did," Scott told her. "Are you alright?"

"Shaken, but alright," she promised. "The bloodhounds are on Bradley's VP now; I think the spotlight — and the target — is a lot smaller now. At least, I hope it is."

"Yeah, well, we'll just wait and see," Scott said.


	11. The Reality Of Being An X-Man

The incidences of cases of tagged mutants was steadily climbing with every passing week, and not every one of those cases came to one of the schools. Some people went to their local hospitals — or to the police first and then to the local hospitals — so it was impossible to know just how many people the Friends of Humanity and their allies had managed to hit with their tags.

It was enough, though, that a few people were just… leaving them in, tired of having to travel to a school to get them out or pay hospital bills for extractions that insurance refused to cover, when they'd cover the medical at all for a mutant. So when Neil came to Chicago a couple weeks before school was set to start there, he was surprised by how  _few_  red tags he saw on the drive in.

Maybe there were just more in New York because Shadowcat could pull them out more easily than anyone else, and she was in Chicago, not New York.

Whatever the case, it was kind of nice to see that, already, the school was making a positive impact on the mutants in the area, which was a good sign for the kids going there if they wanted to make a difference.

It had been a long drive, so Neil stopped at a drive-thru for some food but ended up sitting on the trunk of his car eating it anyway. It was killer hot at the tail end of summer, and he had been driving the whole way, so he wanted to stretch his legs a little bit and get some fresh air. He was still another hour's drive out from the school, after all.

He had just finished texting Leslie Ann to let her know he was almost there and that he'd be sure to call later that night once he got all set up in his new digs when something sharp went straight into his arm, and he let out a surprised sort of shout before he looked down to see the telltale red tag sticking out of his upper arm. It stung more knowing that it was shaped like a small harpoon.

"Aww, come on," he called in the direction of whoever had shot him, getting to his feet as he stepped behind his car to avoid another shot. "Like you gotta label me. I'm  _obvious_."

But seeing as the guys who'd tagged him had more or less gotten what they wanted, there was no answer, and Neil waited for a few moments before he let out a little grumpy grunt and grabbed his food off of the trunk. "Not like I've got any 'dangerous' powers to turn off anyway. Just making me more colorful is what you're doing," he grumbled to himself.

He'd just pulled his car door open when one of the creeps finally decided to show his face, slamming the door shut in front of Neil and barely missing his nose by an inch with the swing. "Where you goin', mutie?" the guy sneered at him.

"Home," Neil said shortly, dropping the bag he was holding as he backed up a step and a second guy stepped around the car behind him. He looked between the two guys and shook his head slightly a second before the one behind him made a grab for his arm, and he ducked and pulled away, just dodging the first guy's grab as well. He almost grinned to himself at how  _not_ trained these guys were. Especially compared to the MRD simulations that the kids in Westchester were used to running before breakfast.

When the first guy responded by taking a swing at Neil, he barely dodged it, but he went almost directly into the second guy's path, and there was no way that could be good. So he grabbed a hold of his car and locked the scales in — since hey, physical mutations weren't going to be bothered by their stupid tag, at least not this kind of thing — and used one hand to vault to the top of his car and slide over, putting distance between himself and the two assailants.

Both of them were shouting every dirty name they could think of Neil's way as they rushed around the car, but he had a solid head start on them. He was  _thinking_ he would circle around the lot and see if he could get back to his car to drive off when a third guy appeared out of nowhere and positively clotheslined him.

He fell back with an  _oof_  as the other two guys caught up to him, panting and looking madder than before. This time, with three of them, it was next to impossible for Neil to avoid it when they made a grab at his arms, especially when he still hadn't gotten back up from the solid fall he took.

It was over almost as quickly as it started as the three guys grabbed a hold of Neil, and the next thing he knew, they were dragging him from the parking lot down a side alley as he squirmed and kicked and shouted — until the first guy threw the first punch.

* * *

Most of the staff at the Chicago school had taken a break for lunch in the teacher's lounge to get some quiet time from all the rush of the first semester and everything else that had been going on lately. Of course, Anton was far gone over little Willow now that Bobby and Rachel had brought her up so he could meet Scott and Annie's granddaughter himself, and Quill kept giving Kitty little significant smirks whenever someone on the staff was holding the tiny Drake girl near her — or near him, for that matter.

"Oh, here — stop projecting," Rachel said as she handed Willow to Quill. "If you want to hold her, just ask."

"Just can't resist a tiny little blonde," Quill said, grinning wider.

"You are not subtle, Star Lord," Kitty said with a  _look_ his way.

He turned toward her with an open look. "Have I ever,  _ever_ pretended to be?" he asked, looking almost insulted at the insinuation that he would be.

She raised an eyebrow and shot a smile his way. "Maybe you should learn to be."

"Nah," he said, waving the idea off. "Too much hassle. Then someone might not get the message."

"You're mistaking me for you," Kitty laughed. "I like subtle from time to time."

"And you married me anyway; I'm very grateful," Peter laughed before he snuggled up with Willow and rubbed noses with her. "It's her own fault, huh, kiddo?"

"Oh, he has it so so bad," Rachel said to Kitty quietly. "And I would apologize, but Willow needs a friend."

"Oh. Shut. Up."

"She's got a point, Kitty," Quill laughed. "I mean, Jayce has Tristan…".

"You do not get to team up with anyone on this," Kitty said, pointing a finger his way.

"I didn't  _team up_ ," he said, holding up both hands. " _I_  am just standing here while  _Rachel_ tells you things that are true."

Kitty had finally started to laugh at him — unable to resist the look he was giving her — as the news came on with the mid-day report, cutting in over the usual fluff with a breaking news story about a young mutant found beaten to death in broad daylight.

"Oh no," Rachel said quietly when the news described the young man — the blue scales and compound eyes were a dead giveaway on who it was.

"I'm heading down to the station," Kitty decided, getting to her feet. "Someone call Scott. He should know."

"I'll do it," Anton said in a heavy sort of tone.

"If you want to fly," Quill offered, "I'll totally get you there once Kitty gets it all straightened out."

"Please," he agreed, frowning hard as the news continued its broadcast on the matter — on how no one knew the identity of the attackers and how the county medical examiner was just starting to investigate how long the young man had been dead before the police were called to the scene.

Kitty knew better than to go to the scene and instead headed to the station, the pictures of Neil on her phone, in her hand, with all the info she needed to positively identify the boy and get them to release his body. At this point, he had no interested family to speak of — they had more or less turned their back on him ever since he'd called down the MRD on their home with his glowing powers.

By the time the investigators were done and the morgue had let him go, Peter was ready to take both Neil and Anton. "Is Scott already into their system?" Kitty asked as they finally got airborne.

Anton nodded softly. "That's what he told me when I got off the phone with him."

Once they landed in Westchester, Hank handled the arrangements for Neil, and Anton took Leslie Ann aside to very gently break the bad news to her.

At first, Leslie Ann almost looked like she hadn't quite heard her dad, and she blinked at him a few times, slowly and unconsciously shaking his head. "No," she said in a breath. "No, that's not…"

"I'm sorry, baby," Anton said, his own heart breaking when he saw her lower lip starting to quiver as she tried and failed to keep it together. He yanked her over and kept her tight to him in a bear hug. "I'm so sorry."

Leslie Ann let out a hitched breath, trying to keep her composure in check — and then utterly failed as she fell apart entirely. The only thing keeping her upright was her father, and Anton simply didn't know what he could say to make it better.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered, going to the floor with her as she crumpled.

* * *

Neil's funeral came together so quickly that those that were newer to the group were taken off-guard by how efficient the X-Men were at handling all of it, as if it was simply a streamlined process. Kurt, of course, officiated over the Last Rites and the funeral itself, and the junior squad and other students felt like they were in more shock than the adults — who looked more resigned and disappointed than anything else.

They were tired of burying children. And it showed.

When it was done, Leslie Ann said goodbye to her father hours after the funeral, completely unsure about what she wanted now that her little world had gone careening off course.

She'd been so set on being an X-Man like her uncle. That had been the plan for so so long…. But seeing how good they had become at burying their own … that was not what she signed up for. That was  _not_ how it was supposed to be. And Neil, she knew, hadn't done a thing to warrant being beaten to death outside of just … existing.

Of course, the team and the teachers had given her a pass on classes for a few days anyhow, all of them well aware of the relationship she had with Neil. But when it came time for the next team exercise, she found herself just staring at her uniform in her hands.

She didn't even realize she'd missed the start of the session. Not until Logan made his presence known from the doorway.

"You gonna put that on or not?" Logan asked, his arms crossed, leaning in the open door.

"I … don't know," she said, glancing between the uniform and Logan as she very slowly sat down.

"Why not? Pretty simple decision, isn't it?"

Leslie Ann started to tell him that it wasn't just the uniform itself, but the words got jumbled before she could get them out and ended up as, "Don't know if — the team is just — and the uniform—" before she shook her head and buried her face in the uniform and started to cry.

He let out a breath and uncrossed his arms before he stepped into the room and took a seat across from her, waiting for her to get it out of her system so she'd hear him properly. "I know it's not what you thought it was. It's never what anyone thinks when they join up."

"I don't want to do this anymore," she said with a little sniff as she finally picked her head up.

"Why did you want to do this in the first place?" Logan asked. "Because if it was just to be like Scott — yeah. You screwed up, kid."

She couldn't help but smirk just the slightest bit. "No…" She shook her head slowly. "No, I wanted to be a police officer when I was a kid. And an X-Man when I got older, you know, because of the powers."

"Nothing says you can't be a cop if that's what you want."

"I don't want to be a cop anymore," she said, shaking her head. "Not after what happened to Dad."

"Don't want to be a cop. Don't want to be a hero. What else you got? Outside of a whole lotta time."

"That's just it," she said miserably. "I don't know."

"You're young. Don't worry about it," he said with a wave. "You want off the team, no problem. I'll let Scooter know if you don't think you can do it."

"Alright," she said with a quiet nod, hesitating for a moment before she pushed the uniform she was holding his way, holding it out to him.

He got to his feet and took it without a word one way or the other, but when she didn't let it go, he had to stop. "Come on, kid. What is it?"

She bit her lip. "I don't…" She sighed. "Maybe I should stay," she said quietly. "So I can still help people."

"I thought you didn't want to be an X-Man," he pointed out.

She hesitated over her answer for a long time and chewed on her lower lip some more before she said in that same quiet tone, "Yeah, but… that's all I got."

Logan let go of the uniform and sat down next to her. "There are other options. Just because you happen to be a mutant doesn't mean you have to be here."

"Doesn't it?" she asked in a tired tone. "I mean, here's safe, right? At least, most of the time."

"Here's supposed to be safe for kids. Young mutants trying to learn how to handle their abilities," he said quietly. "But if this is what you want to do, you don't have to do it with the big 'X' on your chest. There are easier teams to work with. Ones that don't have such a heavy hatred from the public."

Leslie Ann very slowly nodded. "Like…"

"Well, if you want to avoid any X-Men crap, you can always apply to be an Avenger."

Her head came up at that. "I can do that?"

"Why not?" Logan asked. "I was. Hell, still work with 'em more often than not. Hank still is. Kinda. They have mutants on their team."

"How… what do I do?" she asked, a little wide-eyed at the idea.

"Get your head in the game and ask real nice. I can call Cap for ya."

"Would you  _please_?" she asked, a small smile starting at the corner of her mouth.

"Sure. But if that's what you want to do, you need to start by talkin' to Scott. Let him know it's too much."

She swallowed hard at that. "It's just that…"

"He won't hold it against you, and he won't give you a lick of flack."

"Yeah, but, he's my  _uncle_ ," she tried to explain.

"If you can't be honest with  _him_ , you got no business on any team."

Leslie Ann let out a long sigh but then gently tugged on the uniform to take it back. "Fine," she said. "But… can you walk with me down there? Please?"

"Sure," he said, offering her a hand to get up. "You do the rest on your own, and I'll call Cap."

"You really think they'll let me — I mean, really?"

"He'll give you a shot at least," Logan told her.

"Would… I get to stay at the tower?" she asked. That seemed like a good idea… someplace away from the same hallways where she'd been flirting with Neil...

"They prefer it that way," Logan said. "Scott used to get mad at me for it when I was on both teams at once, so I'd recommend it."

"Alright then," she said as she headed down the hallway with Logan, mentally steeling herself for the task ahead and only pausing a  _little_ bit when they got close to Scott's office. But she managed to go in all the same, avoiding the 'help me' glance that she very nearly shot Logan's way as she came inside with the uniform all bundled up in her hands and Scott looked like he could already tell where this was headed.

"Are you alright?" he asked her, first and foremost.

"Yeah — well. No," she corrected herself, balling up the uniform a bit more in her hands as Scott patiently waited for her to come to a sentence.

Logan took a seat off to the side, phone in hand and texting someone, though when Leslie Ann tried to look, he tipped the screen so she couldn't see it.

She frowned his way and then looked back toward Scott and took a deep breath. "I think… I don't want to be an X-Man anymore," she said, starting slow and then gaining speed rapidly with every word until the confession was tumbling out of her mouth. "I can't do it anymore; I really, really can't."

To her surprise, Scott nodded his understanding before, in one smooth movement, he'd gotten around the desk and pulled her into a tight hug. "Don't worry about it," he told her when he finally let her go a little bit. "I'll take your name off the roster; you don't have to do anything you don't want to do, alright?"

She nodded and hugged him again, totally relieved. "You're not mad?"

"Of course not," he promised.

She took a deep breath. "And… you wouldn't be mad if I said I wanted to be an Avenger instead?"

Scott stepped back slightly so he could look at her, a little confused. "No — why?"

"Well, Logan said they're an easier team," Leslie Ann explained.

"They are," Logan said, still texting, though with a smirk on his face. "Buncha punks. Probably crap themselves with half the stuff we deal with on a weekly basis."

Scott smirked Logan's way for a second and then looked back toward Leslie Ann. "Are you sure? You don't  _have_ to be on any team at all."

Leslie Ann nodded. "Yeah," she said quietly. "I still want to help people, but I… I can't do  _this_." She gestured at the uniform, which at some point Scott must have taken from her and put on his desk, though she didn't remember him doing that. "I don't — I  _can't_  watch people hurt anymore. I want  _out_."

At that, Scott pulled her into another warm hug for a while. "Don't worry about it," he said again, though his voice had shifted to one he recognized as her  _uncle_ , not her team leader. "The team isn't for everyone. You'll be an amazing Avenger."

She melted into him, totally relieved, and nodded. "Thanks."

"I … am setting up your audition," Logan said before he finally looked up at the two of them. "Just told Cap to come by and bring his spangles, seein' as it's  _official_ business."

"You did  _not_ tell him that," Scott said with a frown, though he just closed his eyes when Logan turned the phone so that Scott could read for himself, that yes, along with a back and forth string of cursing, he did indeed tell him to 'bring your spangled spandex and the frisbee'.

"This — you can't—" Scott let out a frustrated noise.

"He wants to know if tomorrow's okay," Logan said, chuckling as he started to reply. "I'm gonna tell him to pick another day. Gotta wash my hair."

"You can't—" Scott turned toward Leslie Ann. "This is  _not_ how to talk to an Avenger. Especially not Captain America."

Logan was laughing outright. "He'll be by tomorrow afternoon."

"Okay," Leslie Ann said with a little grin as she looked between the two X-Men. "It's alright, Uncle Scott. My dad raised me proper — don't worry."

Scott pinched the bridge of his nose before he turned toward Logan. "That's fine. Tomorrow afternoon is fine. Just have him come down to the Danger Room when he gets here."

"We're gonna play poker when this is over," Logan told him. "You can come along if you can buy in."

Scott shook his head in disbelief. "Maybe after classes are through."

"That's what we're planning. Won't be until nearly dark," he said. "Hundred bucks gets you in, but watch out, 'cause Fury cheats."

"Of course he does," Scott said dryly before he turned to Leslie Ann. "I'll come to the Danger Room tomorrow. If you decide you don't want to do any of this, I'll make sure you don't have to do anything you don't want to."

"I'll be alright," she promised.

* * *

Leslie Ann had been on the phone with her parents all morning talking about the upcoming Avengers audition and how nervous she was for the whole thing when she heard Logan and Steve picking on each other from all the way down the hall.

"I gotta go, Dad. Captain America's here," she told him, already nervous just  _saying_ it out loud. "I'll call you back when I'm done."

She hung up the phone and peered around the corner to see that her uncle was looking totally exasperated as Logan and Captain America chatted amiably and laughed at each other down the whole hallway until they got to the Danger Room, where she was still totally nervous about the whole thing.

"This is Leslie Ann," Scott said with an encouraging smile her way. "Leslie Ann, Captain America."

"I ... sorta kinda go by Amazon too if you prefer codenames or something," she offered shyly as she stuck her hand out.

"It's up to you," Cap replied with a friendly smile as he took her hand. "You can call me Steve if you like."

"Umm. Okay," Leslie Ann said, slightly wide-eyed.

"Call him what you want, darlin'," Logan advised. "Scooter can't call anyone like that by their first name."

"Okay," she said. "So, um, Captain America ... what's first? For this… thing?"

"Well," Steve said, turning toward Logan and Scott. "How about you can head in and I'll join these two jokers in the booth to start with. I'm sure your uncle has a few sims picked out, right?" He looked toward Scott with a smile. "Nothing too easy, right?"

"I picked out a few that I know are likely to come up with the Avengers," Scott said.

"So kissing babies and posing for the  _Bugle_ ," Logan said on his way up to the booth. "Cake walk."

"Hey. That's an important part of the job," Steve laughed.

Scott shook his head at Logan and Steve both and made a point to wish Leslie Ann luck as she headed into the Danger Room. He quickly followed Logan and Steve up to the booth and settled in quickly to start up a sim. "Low-level Hydra just to get warmed up," Scott explained to Steve. "They'll get more advanced as the sim goes on."

"Sounds good to me," Steve said. "Besides, everyone knows the baby kissing sims are for Logan anyhow. He's gotta keep in practice, after all."

"Not around here I don't," Logan argued.

"No, we keep him in good supply," Scott said distractedly as he was setting up the sim for Leslie Ann, more focused on making sure she wasn't going to have a bad case of nerves than anything else as the first few Hydra soldiers poked their heads into the sim. "This one's a cityscape, because you tend to favor those, but at the end, I want to show you a jungle sim and let her really let loose in a natural setting like that. You should see it," he told Steve almost proudly.

"Sounds great; your sims are always fun to watch," Steve agreed, still smiling but clearly getting down to business himself as he made his way up to the window.

Leslie Ann was doing well — and it probably helped that she hadn't been able to really  _hit_ anything since the funeral, so getting to let loose in the sim was helping with her nerves. The first several Hydra soldiers were easy enough to dispatch, but it wasn't until the stronger soldiers started pouring in that she really turned up the juice, surprising Steve when an entire sidewalk exploded in front of her; she had been manipulating the plants underneath the concrete and in the cracks, which resulted in her taking out a good chunk of Hydra soldiers with it.

She kept going as the sim's difficulty level rose with every downed soldier until it was clear to Scott that she'd had enough, and he pulled back the simulation to instead pull up the jungle setting, like he'd promised Steve.

And that was when things got interesting.

Leslie Ann broke into a little smirk as she saw the surroundings before she threw out both hands and reached deeply into the whole jungle as far as she could. At first, it didn't look like she was doing much of anything at all before, all at once, everything green around her started to move together, waltzing a tighter and tighter circle around her until the whole thing closed in and she rocketed to the top of the trees to stand on a perfectly-formed platform of branches, a grove of bushes, trees, grasses, and flowers pulling back in an instant to show off the rearranged little paradise.

"Alright, come on up," Scott told her, unable to stop the proud smile before he turned to Steve. "I told you that you had to see it."

"That was something else," Steve agreed, nodding.

"She doesn't get to let loose often," Scott said, still grinning. "But when she does…" He grinned wider and gestured to the sim.

"It's impressive," Steve had to agree. "Her hand-to-hand was pretty darn good too." He frowned and turned toward Logan "All the kids know how to fight like that?"

"Just the ones that do what I tell them to," Logan replied.

Leslie Ann got up to the booth a moment later, pushing her hair out of her face and looking decidedly more nervous now that she wasn't lost in her powers or the sim. "So…" She looked between the three men expectantly, almost bouncing on her toes.

"So, I think we'll need to have a little talk," Steve said. "Without your uncle and teacher with you."

Leslie Ann bit her lip and looked toward the uncle and teacher in question, though when Scott looked encouraging and Logan was smirking, she nodded. "Alright."

Steve took the lead to head outside with her, leaving Scott and Logan in the booth.

"She'll be fine," Logan said. "He liked her."

"She's impressive," Scott said with a nod as he leaned back and let out a breath.

"And she knows what she's doing, so, more important than raw power."

"And she'll do better away from ... this," Scott said, gesturing around him with one hand.

"Not that anyone'd be surprised by that," Logan said with a nod. "She already lasted longer on the team than most rookies, and after that run, she can handle the Avengers."

"Oh, I'm sure she can handle the Avengers," Scott said with a smirk. "I just mean she's had a rough time here since day one."

"Who hasn't?"

Scott shook his head at that. "Right," he said, then smirked slightly Logan's way. "Well at least Stark will stop asking me when they get to steal one of ours."

"K offered to join up just to make him regret bitching," Logan told him.

"Thor would love that," Scott smirked.

"Which would make Tony regret it that much more."

"We missed an opportunity."

"You think so? She'll still do it. Make him think he hit the lottery for about five minutes."

"Let's not do that to Leslie Ann," Scott said with a smirk. "She should get her own introduction to the team — get the full 'new girl' treatment on her own."

"Oh, for sure," Logan agreed. "We'll send in the big guns when Tony says something stupid or condescending."

Scott smirked and leaned back, waiting for Leslie Ann and Steve to get back. And it wasn't too much longer before they did, both of them smiling, though Leslie Ann looked like she was almost in shock.

"It looks like all that's left now is for me to clean you out of your cash," Steve said as he gave the two X-Men a smile.

"Keep dreamin'," Logan countered. "I'm gonna win that frisbee back."

"You're not going to win it again, Logan," Steve said as the two of them headed down the hall and Scott turned to Leslie Ann with a broad grin just before he scooped her up in a tight bear hug.

"I'm so proud of you," Scott told her. "Congratulations."


	12. Taking A Stand

Erik rarely had occasion to go into town, but when he did, he liked to make sure it was worth the trip. This time, he meant to gather up the books he'd ordered and have a relaxing cup of tea in the little coffee shop that had been open and running since Charles first set up shop in Westchester. It was a sentimental thing — and a means for him to remember the many chess games he and his old friend had shared over the years over the scent of Earl Grey tea.

He'd put most of the books in his car and took the one original copy of the translated  _Tale of Genji_  that he'd been looking forward to down to the coffee shop. He'd only been in the building perhaps fifteen minutes and was just getting into his cup of tea when he spotted the now familiar bright tags on a small group of teenagers.

He frowned watching the group of them seemingly unperturbed by the tags and their dark significance. He didn't even notice it when he began to reach for his spoon and it zoomed into his hand.

One of the teenagers seemed to take notice, though, and broke into a sudden and unexplainable grin, breaking apart from the group to walk over to Erik's table. "You're Magneto, aren't you?" he asked with real excitement in his tone, bright and wide eyes watching Erik carefully.

"I was," he replied in a bit of a drawl, trying to keep his temper in check.

"Can I get a picture with you?" the young man asked excitedly.

He wasn't sure how to answer that. "Doesn't it bother you?" Erik asked.

"What?" the young man asked openly, then shook his head and held up both hands. "No, no, it's cool, everyone knows you're a good guy now."

Erik blinked. "I … the tagging, young man." He gestured to the boy's arm. "This is how it starts."

"Oh, right." The young man looked down at the tag on his arm and then back up at Erik. "No, see, I'm not a mutant," he said quickly.

"Excuse me?" Erik said, openly shocked. "Why … on  _earth_ would you …"

"Well, you know, it's sort of a solidarity thing?" the young man said, nervously shrugging as he gestured at the tag. "I got mine done at a piercing parlor. Figure if the Friends of Humanity can't tell the difference, it sorta proves a point, right?"

"I suppose it could," Erik said finally before a little smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"There's only one mutant in my group of friends over there," the young man said with a wide grin. "Can't tell the difference, can you?"

Erik glanced over to the group and tried to see the fine difference, but it simply passed his detection. "I never thought I'd live to see the day," he said at just a whisper.

"So… that's a 'no' on the picture?"

"You're welcome to a picture," Erik said with a tight little smile. "And thank you for protecting your friend."

The young man grinned and shrugged easily. "Hey, that's what friends do, right?" he said a second before he snapped a very quick selfie and beamed. "Nobody's gonna believe me on this — thanks!" he called over his shoulder before he dashed back to his friends, still grinning as the group of them joked around some more.

Erik watched them for a few minutes before he glanced down at his tea and just started to chuckle to himself.

He was still in a bit of disbelief as he headed back to the institute, though this time, he was examining the tags he saw a little more carefully as he did so. Except in a few cases of physical mutations, he found himself wondering who, if any, of those he was seeing were actually mutants and just how far this reached — or if it was limited to a single group of teenagers.

Either way, it was something he hadn't thought he would see, and he was still smiling about it when he got back with his books to the mansion — which was far quieter now that the school year was in full swing and only those interested in being X-Men were present.

His arrival back to the Institute was pretty well timed, as K's riding class were all headed up from the barn, with the little riding instructor following behind them. "Have a nice trip?" she asked as she stopped next to his car.

"Unexpectedly so," he agreed.

"Meet a nice lady?" she teased. "Common backgrounds, got the whole 'floats when she's pissed off' thing going on?"

"Nothing like that," he said with a little smile. "Simply a group of unexpectedly brave children."

"You know, if you're missing the large groups of kids, I'm  _sure_ you and Kitty would do well together."

He waved his hand. "No, I'm enjoying the quiet," he said. "And this  _is_ Charles' school," he added, gesturing with the hand he had waved to the school around them.

"So what was it then?" she asked, taking his arm as the two of them headed inside.

"I ran into a group of teenagers while I was getting a cup of tea," he explained. "And do you know — all of them had tags, and only one was a mutant." He turned her way with an eyebrow raised. "They did it to themselves."

She tipped her head to the side and nodded. "You know? I'm surprised it took them this long. How did you know it was only the one?"

"One of them talked with me for a while," Erik said. "I don't think he realized how… unique their position was, to be quite honest."

"They rarely do," she said with a laugh. "Who knows; maybe it'll be catching. The way that they post everything on the internet, I wouldn't be surprised if Tumblr was filled up with the same stuff by next weekend."

"I don't think I know what that is," Erik chuckled.

"That's okay; it's not really for the fainthearted," she said with a little wave.

Erik shook his head at that, still not sure he followed. "At any rate, it's a brave thing all the same," he said. "Especially when those tags are a target still."

"It is, but these are brave young people," K pointed out. "And they're probably too young to do much else."

"It's remarkable," Erik agreed in a breath. "I didn't think I'd see it."

"Then I'm glad it was you they talked to," she told him.

"So am I," he told her with a widening smile.

* * *

In the Swedish Alps, Kurt was following what he thought was a lead on his father's whereabouts.

If he was being honest, he hadn't really been paying much attention to what was going on back home when he wasn't  _needed_ , putting his focus on keeping his family safe and healthy. And when he wasn't spending the time with them, he was spending it looking for Azazel so that he would stop feeling that sense of nagging dread every time he took his family anywhere.

This time last year, he would have suggested a trip to Germany for Oktoberfest, and instead, he was worried about taking the kids anywhere like that — especially Krissy.

So he was well and truly focused on the task at hand, exploring the mountain where someone had said a demon had taken residence. He'd even fought a few lesser demons chasing rumors like that, and if that was the case here, he'd do it again until he found where Azazel was hiding and—

Well, he'd come to that later.

It was snowy enough that it was slow work, teleporting around the mountain in a slow climb. The villagers nearby had been frustratingly lacking in any details beyond which mountain the 'demon' lived on, so he found himself searching the hard way until he was sure he'd found it — a beautiful and sturdy home that seemed to be built into the mountain itself. It wasn't quite the size and grandeur that his father was used to, but Azazel had fallen far lately.

Kurt didn't find his father in the entryway when he forced his way into the house, but he didn't find a demon ready to tear him to shreds either, so he made his way through until he found Azazel calmly sitting in a library, pouring over a book of old runes that Kurt simply didn't like the look of.

When Azazel heard Kurt step into the room, he looked up almost lazily and put a marker in the book. "Well, this is a surprise," he said. "Though not entirely unexpected."

"You're coming with me," Kurt said, his eyes narrowed and his tail twitching. "And you will put right all that you have altered."

"Will I now?" Azazel said, almost amused as he got to his feet. "Why?"

"Your reign is over, and I won't allow you to gain anywhere near that sort of power again." Kurt was clearly itching for a reason to strike his father down. "And you will leave my family alone if you want to continue breathing."

"I'll do as I please with  _my_ descendents," Azazel replied an instant before he teleported from the seat to the opposite room, behind Kurt, where his swords were kept. "You have no say in it, my boy."

"Of course I do," Kurt countered. "You've crossed too many lines, old  _man_."

Azazel's eyes flashed with anger an instant before he drove forward, two swords in his hands that Kurt met with his own. Since Azazel had his teleportation back, the fight was more interesting, both of them disappearing and reappearing as quickly as they could keep track of each other — until they wound up out in the snow, still trying to get the upper hand.

Where Azazel had always been an excellent swordsman, though, Kurt could feel the difference in fighting him without his full strength, without that extra power behind every blow. And there was of course the fact that Azazel had to have taken the time to re-learn the balance of his fighting stance with no tail. He was not  _quite_ as formidable as he had been, though that was relative in a master swordsman's duel.

"I'm surprised to find you so far north," Kurt said as they locked swords. "I thought you needed heat to survive."

"Perhaps before," Azazel sneered over the top of their blades. "But so long as you have seen fit to confine me to this body, I will enjoy the benefits of traveling where I please."

"Then perhaps I can introduce you to a nice crevasse in a glacier where you can rot for a few hundred years. Since you like the cold so much all of a sudden."

"Not the cold but the solitude," Azazel corrected him as he spun and barely deflected one of Kurt's strikes, though he used the momentum to bring his second blade inches from Kurt's chest so that Kurt had to teleport away before they could lock blades again. "I'm sure the next time I need your little brood, the solitude will be of infinite use."

"That's not going to happen," Kurt said with a growl before he flipped one of Azazel's swords away.

Azazel teleported back to get his footing, down one sword and clearly surprised by it, before he simply bared his teeth. "And what, exactly, will you do to stop me?"

"Whatever it takes to end you," Kurt replied.

Azazel laughed outright at that, shaking his head. "So heartless. I'm almost proud."

"I'm sure you don't know what that feels like," Kurt said as he attacked.

But rather than deflect Kurt's attack, Azazel's expression lit up with a kind of malice as he stepped in, angling his own body so that rather than the disarming move Kurt was going for to tear through his arm, the point of Kurt's sword went through Azazel's side, under his ribs. Kurt felt it in the same spot himself as both men gasped at the wound and Azazel staggered back, still grinning maliciously despite the obvious pain.

"Yes, your plan to die to protect your little brats seems perfectly executed … but who will protect them now?" Azazel sneered before he disappeared in a cloud of red, leaving Kurt holding his side in the snow.

It took him a moment to gather himself, but with his father gone, he let out a curse and, after a few 'ports, found himself back in Westchester — first on the lawn and then in the lab; it was a little harder to do long jumps when he was struggling to focus.

"Kurt!" Hank cried out when Kurt managed to finally teleport himself into the lab — and promptly knocked over a tray full of tools near one of the beds. "What happened now?"

"A swordfight with my father," he said in explanation, letting out a breath of a gasp as Hank very quickly got to work. "It did not end well for either of us."

"Well I can't say I am overly concerned about him when I have you so obviously in need," Hank said with a frown. "I was not notified that eventually you too would  _become_ a Hawkeye in constant need of bandages and medical intervention."

Kurt smirked softly at that. "It comes from joining the family."

Hank shook his head and simply started treatment first and foremost with painkillers and a strong sedative. And when Kurt woke up a few hours later, he was patched up — but he was not alone.

"You. Are. An. Idiot," Kate told him the moment she saw that his eyes were open.

"Kate…"

"What were you  _thinking_?" she asked, only getting angrier now that she had a conscious audience. She shook her head. "You know I'll stand by you going after him and taking him down and bringing him … I don't know. Somewhere we can undo all his crap. But  _swordfighting_?" She gestured at his side. "Who did that, Kurt? You or him?"

He shifted guiltily for a moment. "A bit of both, to be honest. I went to disarm him, and he stepped into it."

Kate narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't  _ever_ do that again," she said sharply.

"Kate, I was only trying to…"

"You were trying to fix things, I know, and I will stand by you while we figure this out, you know I will, but  _not this way_ ," she said, gesturing to his bandages.

"I was trying to bring him in," Kurt defended.

"You better have been," Kate said.

"Of course I was," he said. "He was hiding outside of his usual latitudes."

"Where?"

"The Swedish Alps," he replied quietly.

Kate fell silent for a while. "What was he doing there?" she asked at last.

"He said he was looking for solitude, but he was reading a book that seemed to be all runes."

"That can't be good for anyone involved," Kate said with a small frown as she scooted a little closer to Kurt and laid her head down on his shoulder.

"I will fix this," he swore. "Somehow."

" _We_ will fix this," Kate corrected him. "In a way that doesn't get you stabbed in the middle of the Swedish Alps." She picked her head up to look at him. "Seriously. Don't do things like that to me, Kurt."

He kissed the side of her head. "I will do whatever it takes to protect you," he promised. "It's what I swore to do. I plan to stick to that."

"Well, the ceremony went both ways, if you remember," she pointed out. "If anything happened to you…" She shook her head. "Didn't you learn anything from that other timeline?"

"What do you think I'm working so hard to prevent?"

"And don't you think — don't you  _know_ that if I lost you, I'd be every inch as bad off as you were then?" Kate asked in nearly a whisper.

"Kate," he said low before he kissed her again, "I'm not going anywhere."

"Good." She pulled herself up to be closer to him. "I'll hold you to that."

"If you knew what the runes were — or what the book was, I'm sure that K could translate," Hank said nearby. "Or Thor, if you can catch him."

Kurt let out a sigh and shook his head. "I only know it was an old book. I didn't recognize the runes."

Suddenly, one of the little bamfs started chattering quickly at Kurt, asking him where this place was with the scary old book. And the little demon was insistent, getting closer and closer until he was holding Kurt's face in both hands so he'd look at him until Kurt finally told him about the Alps, though he was sure to warn the little guy in his sternest tones  _not_ to go looking himself.

He giggled and saluted, then disappeared in a poof of smoke, followed quickly by two others, all of them in unusually high spirits to go looking into one of Azazel's hiding spots.

"What's going on?" Kate asked one of the bamfs that had remained behind, and he chattered at her for a moment before she narrowed her eyes.

"Bring her here first," Kurt said, with similarly narrowed eyes.

K was only halfway through buttoning up her flannel shirt when the little bamf brought her right to Kurt and Kate. She didn't look the least bit concerned on the why, though. "Do you need something, Dad?" she asked, simply continuing to button.

"You aren't going after him," Kurt said with a glare.

"No, I'm not," she agreed. "Just the book they were talking about. It might be helpful."

"He'll have it with him," Kurt pointed out. "He wasn't finished with it. I doubt he left it there for us to go back for."

She shrugged up one shoulder and put her hands in her back pockets. "Maybe there's something else there that might lend a clue."

"And I'm telling you," Kurt said, sitting up a little straighter. "You can't go after him. Not alone."

She let out her breath and took a few steps closer to push him back into the pillows. "I'm bringing your friends."

"You can't go after him — you're still under the influence of his blood magic. And as much as I love my friends," he said, pausing to look at the bamfs, "they are still susceptible to him if he pulls the right strings."

"I'll be fine," K said, nodding with each word. "You need to heal up."

"If he uses that magic — if he turns that against you while you're alone—" Kurt argued, and Kate cut in with an incredible groan.

"Are you  _listening_ to yourself?" Kate asked, gesturing at him. "Because you  _should_."

"What are you talking about?" Kurt asked, irritated at the question.

"How is me going after him any different than you going after him?" K asked, her arms crossed over her chest now.

Kurt glared between the two of them. "He's my father — and he's come after my family."

"Umm.  _Our._  Our family," Kate said, rapping his shoulder with a glare.

"That makes my problem a personal vendetta, by the way," K pointed out. "Two separate issues."

Kurt was clearly frustrated as he glanced between both of them. "You," he said, pointing to K, "should not go after him alone. Take Logan at least."

"Logan's in Chicago running down a lead," she said with a frown.

"Then take me," Kate said.

"You're taking care of an injured Elf. Priorities."

"Fine, then take Scott or take Hank or take, I dunno, Billy and Teddy — they haven't had a good field trip in a while — but  _neither of you_ should be going anywhere near him alone, okay?" Kate said, jutting her chin out at both of them.

"Jeez, Mom. Sounds like you're all bent out of shape. I am a big girl. It's okay," K replied. "I have a nifty tagging gun that Scott picked up off a jerk the other day. It looks terribly inaccurate, but you know. Field testing."

"And it'll be like handing him the perfect weapon to use on us if he turns things around on you," Kurt pointed out. "Those things don't influence magic."

"No, but the teleporting or even the healing…"

"K." Kurt gave her a look. "Please, just take someone with you."

"Fine, get someone here if you're that worried. But it's probably a waste of time."

"I'd rather be safe than sorry in this case," he said with a small smile. "I did say he came after my family, and I meant you too." The smile widened. "Or are you going to stop calling me 'Dad'?"

"Oh,  _never_ ," K replied before, to emphasise her point, she kissed his cheek. "Don't wait up, don't break a hip … don't … tell me about how it happened if you do."

Kurt chuckled, and Kate grinned widely as she whispered out a "not an exhibitionist" that had him laughing outright before the bamfs got K out of there so she wouldn't have to be subject to their nonsense.

* * *

When K returned a while later, she had a book in her hand, though she was reasonably sure it wasn't the one that Kurt was talking about. It was an old book, and in the front portion of it, there was a small forward that had mentioned how everything contained in the book was simply the stuff of fairy tales and myths and that it was not to be taken too seriously.

But the stories had her pacing and irritated. It wasn't the usual Norse mythology; it centered a lot on the  _vǫlva_ that were supposed to live up in the mountains preying on travellers and casting spells on those that were brave enough or unfortunate enough to come anywhere near them. One of the stories in the book, where the spine was bent a bit more heavily than the rest of it, was a story on how one of the witches on the mountains had found a way to live forever by stealing the life out of others. And that just couldn't be as simple as a bedtime horror story.

The bamfs were incredibly worried, and they showed it with wringing hands and little frowns as they crawled over her shoulders looking at their stolen goods, not chattering as much as usual as they fretted.

"Relax," she said to the one half hanging on her hair. "He's not going to come looking for it. And no, I'm not going to read it to you."

Her favorite friend crossed his arms and chattered at her insistently for that one, though a few of the others were moving on in their curiosity, poking at the spine and the leather bindings and chattering over how old it was.

"Yes, it's very old," K told one of them, patting him on the head. "I won't guarantee what the leather is made out of. But somehow, it made it through the church destroying all of this stuff."

The bamf tipped his head to the side and then nestled into a near snuggle, putting a hand on some of the words on the page as his tail switched back and forth.

With a sigh, she snapped the book shut, ignoring the dust that came off the old parchment as she did so and started toward where she was sure Kurt and Kate were still making faces at each other.

"Your dad has some interesting reading material," K informed Kurt as she came in the door. "Old stories about mountain witches that worked against Odin. Fun stuff."

"I somehow doubt that means he's decided to work against our Asgardian friends," Kurt said, looking up with a frown.

"No, these stories have nothing to do with the Asgardians," K said with a little chuckle. "Just giving you background on the witches themselves." She held the little book up so he can see it. "I'm not entirely sure that this isn't bound in human skin, by the way. Probably a monk."

Kurt's frown deepened, and he sat up a little straighter as he waved her over. "That sounds like him," he said slowly.

"Not so fast," K said, pointing a finger his way. "This is Viking lore. They did not take too kindly to monks."

"And what kind of stories are in a book bound in monks' skin?" Kurt asked, still frowning.

"These are all cautionary tales about the  _vǫlva_ ," she told him. "And he seemed particularly interested in one story about a witch that discovered how to live forever by stealing the life out of others. There's a new crease in the binding for that story."

Kurt let out a frustrated noise when he heard it. "It's not enough to steal powers from my daughter — now he wants  _immortality_."

"Well he does seem to take issue with not getting his way," K pointed out. "Spoiled."

"Spoiled, petulant, and powerful," Kurt replied irritably. "Not the best combination."

"I don't know what to tell you otherwise. I can look through the rest of the book, but the group this seems to be focused on was not nice by any standards, and I'm not sure what good it would do."

"And I'm not sure how accurate the stories are," Kurt admitted.

"I'm … actually impressed," K admitted sitting down in a chair near his bed. "The fact that this book even  _exists_. After the Church went through and destroyed everything they could find like this? It makes me wonder who would save this over everything else they could have saved."

"That doesn't make me feel better," Kurt said, shaking his head.

"It had to have belonged to someone who thought they were descended from the witches," she said with a little sigh. "Nonsense, if you know the stories — but it doesn't stop people from believing it."

"And what are the stories, exactly?" Kurt asked, leaning forward with bright eyes. "I know you don't think it will do much good, but if there is  _any_ truth to them… if we can find out what he is planning and keep him from Kari, Kaleb, and Krissy…"

K let out a patient sigh. "In the time of the Vikings, all free Norsewomen were expected to know magic, in some aspect or another," K told him. "Most of them put their focus on the crops, livestock, things like that. But there were soothsayers and those that made hexes. Others that were supposed to have done battle with the gods for knowledge and magic. Pretty much everything you could think of. Where do you want to start?"

"Start with the stories in that book," Kurt said, gesturing to the book in K's hand. "And we'll find more. If it interests my father, we should know it…" He paused and allowed a little impish grin to spread over his features. "And besides, a good fairy tale is always a welcome distraction."


	13. A Long Fall

America let out a little frustrated noise over coffee that morning in Chicago, and Lucy leaned over her shoulder with a small smile. "What's the matter?" she asked, sure that it was just a matter of the fact that her girlfriend was  _not_ a morning person.

"Coffee reading material's drying up," America said, showing Lucy her phone where she'd pulled up the site giving stories of X-Men saves. "There's new stories, but it was going at about, what, a couple hundred a day?"

"And now?" Lucy prompted.

"Maybe forty since yesterday," America grumbled. "And you know how short most of 'em are. I'm already caught up."

"Maybe the stories are finally starting to dry up," Lucy offered. "I mean, the site's been up for months now."

"Maybe," America grumbled until Lucy leaned over to kiss her cheek.

"Cheer up," Lucy said with a smile. "I'm sure we can think of something else to do."

America smirked Lucy's way and was about to say something snarky in response when the doorbell rang, and Lucy got up to answer it, leaving America to finish her coffee.

The young man waiting in the entryway was tall, a little gangly, and on top of looking incredibly ready to just  _leave,_ he had a laptop tucked under his arm as he seemed to almost bounce in place. "I heard you can get rid of the stupid tags? What will that cost me?"

"Oh, we don't charge," Lucy said, waving the young man inside. "We'll just need to take a look at that and make sure it's not in too deep or too near anything important before we take it out."

"Alright. So. Is there like an appointment I have to make or …"

"Not at all," Lucy said. "Actually, you came at the perfect time. I usually run the scans when our resident soon-to-be doctor is busy in residency, so let's just get you down, shall we?" she asked with a warm smile.

"Sure, thanks," he replied, smiling a little sheepishly at them as he followed her at a little distance, looking around the facility wide eyed.

"How did you get shot — if you don't mind my asking? And where?" Lucy asked as they headed to the lab. "We're keeping track, in case there's a concentration of cases, you know…"

"I was in a coffee shop a few days ago working off of the free wifi? And one of the other customers in there didn't like what I was surfing on."

"What was that?" Lucy asked politely, opening the door to the lab to lead him in.

"Oh, it's nothing really," he said with a little shrug. "It was kind of a pro-mutant website."

"Well, around here, that's not considered a bad thing at all," Lucy teased as she had him sit down and got him all set up.

"Tell that to the jerks that shot me," he argued.

"I meant here at the school," Lucy corrected herself. "We've had our share of idiots around here since we got set up, I'm sure you know…" She let out a hum when she saw the tag on the scans. "Well, it's not near anything too important. Whoever hit you has either excellent aim or horrible aim and managed to miss a big artery."

"That's a good thing, right? Because it sounds like a good thing."

"It means this will be a cinch. I'll just ask Shadowcat to pop down here for a few minutes, and you can go right back to your free wifi and your pro-mutant site," Lucy promised him. "My girlfriend was just reading that one with all those stories, you know?" she said as she hit the call button for Kitty. "She reads it every morning."

He glanced around the room anxiously. "Yeah. That … that one isn't bad."

"She's positively addicted," Lucy said with a laugh before Kitty arrived in the lab by simply coming down through the ceiling, as per usual at this point with the tagging cases. "Shadowcat, this young man here would very much like to get back to his normal life," Lucy called out with a smile.

"Then we should let him do that," Kitty said, making her way over to the young man. "What's your name?"

"David," he said.

"That's a nice computer," she noted before she very gently took a hold of the tag. "Kinda serious one too. More than just a surfing set up, I'm sure. Are you a hacker, David?"

"Ah ... more of an internet entrepreneur. Startups, that sort of thing."

"Well, as long as you're not the one trying to crash our website, we'll be just fine. If you are, well, I guess your firewall won't be too happy with you very soon."

He chuckled. "Yeah, no. Don't have to worry on that account." He bounced slightly as he looked around the lab. "Can we speed this along? I've got a  _serious_ backlog to get through since I got tagged."

"Sure," Kitty said, though she was frowning at him a little bit. "I'll just phase this out and Lucy will stitch you up." She very quickly did just that, and all that David felt was the simple fact that there was no longer an object lodged in his arm before he started to bleed.

"There — that was easy, right?" Lucy said with a smile. "And you should be able to use your powers again now. The tag has a miniaturized inhibitor function."

"That explains so much," he said, sounding relieved. "I was afraid I'd lost my touch for a minute there."

Lucy smiled sweetly and gestured at him. "Go on and try it then. It'll ease your mind, I'm sure."

He let out a nervous sort of laugh and cracked open his laptop. "Ah … might need a password? It would be rude to hack into your service so close to you helping me."

"Sure thing," Kitty said as she leaned over to key it in for him and then made a  _voila_ motion with one hand. "Try it now."

He grinned for just a second before his fingers started to fly over the keys, and once he was into his system, he simply sat back as lines of code whisked by. "It's going to take a week to catch up. This is just … ugh."

Kitty tipped her head and looked over his shoulder, though the codes were moving way too fast for anyone without his powers to keep up with. "Sorry about your luck," she said. "Something important?"

"Well," he said with a little self conscious laugh, "I've got a little website? The rest of my online endeavors more or less run themselves, and I cash the checks. But this one requires constant screening, and I've been fighting off attempted hackers for weeks now."

"They didn't get in while you were stuck, did they?" Lucy asked.

"Not far enough to screw anything up," he said, scanning the quickly moving code. "But they got further than they have in the past." He waved at the screen. "It'll be fine, though. I can deal with it."

"Well, what's the site?" Lucy asked with genuine curiosity.

He blushed just a little bit as he glanced over at Kitty. "It's a fan site…."

"Trust me : I've read Kamala Khan's fanfiction site. There is nothing you can say to surprise me," Kitty said with a little smirk.

"Okay," he said before he minimized the coding program and pulled up his browser, then turned the screen her way. "Surprise."

Kitty's eyes widened — and then Lucy's as she looked over Kitty's shoulder — as they both recognized the site with all of the X-Men stories on it. "That was  _you_?" Kitty asked, her eyebrows high on her head.

"Well, someone had to do something," he said with a shrug. "I didn't expect it to take off so  _fast_ , but I knew it would take off."

"And you've been running this whole thing for months," Kitty said, obviously impressed.

"I have a few moderators," he admitted. "But they only get five percent of the posts routed to them, and they're swamped with that much."

Kitty's eyebrows went up even higher, and she let out a little whistle. "That's pretty impressive," she told him. "And this is just what you do in your  _spare time_?"

"Well … yeah."

"Do you want a job?" Kitty asked in a tone that was  _almost_ not really a question.

"I … don't really need one," he said, though he paused. "What do you need done?"

"Well, we've got a few tech geniuses here already," Kitty said, "but our big guns went to  _LA_." She rolled her eyes. "And we've got training simulations, security systems, you name it. I can't run it all forever on my own."

"Uh, that … that sounds great," he said, sounding as shell-shocked as he looked. "Do you do this all the time? Hire people off the street?"

"Not unless they wow my socks off," Kitty said with a smirk before she gestured at the screen. "You want the job or not?"

"Yeah, that'd be great. When do I start? What time do I need to be here?"

"Just go get your stuff and we'll take you as soon as you think you can move in and play with our simulator."

"Room and board too?" he asked. "Sweet. You have a better view than I do anyhow."

"Just part of the service we offer here," Kitty said with a smirk.

"Just keep updating that site and making my girlfriend happy, would you?" Lucy said with a teasing smirk.

"No problem," David laughed. "I was in a rush because I was finishing up a hack that would keep attacking the anti-X-Men site."

"You're the genius behind that too?" Lucy asked, grinning widely.

"Well, they were trashing my site and trying to call us all liars," he defended. "They were asking for it. Especially since all of our stories are unique, and 80% of theirs come from the same three IP addresses."

"Then they were  _so_ asking for it," Kitty agreed. She grinned as she gestured for David to follow her. "C'mon. Let me show you around. If you're gonna come play, you should see what our toys are like."

* * *

It was All Saint's Day, and as had somehow become tradition in the city, many people were gathered — faithful and nonfaithful alike — for the blessings that the Church was giving out. It was also a tradition that the event be televised, in part for the cheerful faces in the streets but also in part for the appearance of Angel as he made sure to swoop over their heads in the morning sun — just to play a part in the service that was going on.

He'd never dressed up for the occasion or stopped into the Church, but he seemed to get a kick out of the smiles from the kids on the street. So every year, he made a point to take to the skies of New York on that day.

The camera crews were waiting and ready, and back at the mansion, the remaining original X-Men were joking around enjoying their coffee and just waiting for their old friend to make his pass by.

The commentators were getting excited, as apparently he'd been spotted in the gently falling snow several blocks away, and they were ready for what was sure to be a great visual as the blond-haired, blue-eyed Angel flew by in the flurry around them. And when he did finally come into view, he was grinning and clearly enjoying himself, as was the crowd below.

"He gets better at the timing every year," Hank said with a little smile. "He couldn't have caught the snow any better."

But as the news crew started to pan away from the scene, someone screamed as a shot was fired. The camera hurriedly searched the sky for Angel, only to catch him as he was falling straight down from at least thirty stories up, one wing bent at an odd angle. He seemed to be trying to fix whatever had gone wrong, but it was easy to see the bright tag — and the blood on his white feathers.

The group in Westchester went totally silent as they watched with the same sinking feeling in each of their stomachs as Angel fell faster and the ground rose up to meet him — until the moment of impact. Hank had already looked away, knowing what was coming, and Scott was pale and totally still as he watched the cameraman quickly pan away to a shocked-looking reporter.

There was simply no way Angel could have survived a fall from that height, and they knew it.

"Kurt, go get Betsy," Logan said quietly.

Kurt broke out of his wide-eyed horror for a moment before he disappeared in a poof of blue. A moment later, he reappeared just beside Logan with their purple-haired friend, who looked like she was in shock. As soon as she was there, Logan pulled her over into a hug and flat refused to let her go as she started to melt down.

Scott and Hank, meanwhile, had started to move, wordlessly, for the door to take care of what they knew needed to be taken care of. There were arrangements to be made, and as they'd already far too recently shown, the X-Men were getting good at burying their own.

Hank was the one to call Bobby, too, to let him know what had happened, in case he hadn't been watching. And he hadn't, too busy with Willow, whose hair was getting redder and redder at about the same rate that she was learning how to make her dad fall apart to get her to smile. Bobby had started to tell Hank as much before Hank cut in with the news, and the line went silent on the other end for a long moment before Bobby said, "I'll be there as soon as I can."

Scott and Hank arrived on the scene not long after that, though Scott in particular was surprised to see that, when they arrived, the Avengers had already beaten them there — and they looked furious, every one of them.

"We already found the guy who did it," Cap told Scott quietly. "He's in custody. Had it going live online — with his reaction. He's going to jail, plain and simple."

Scott nodded quietly at that. "Alright," he said as he looked over the scene for the first time in person.

"I'm so sorry, Scott."

"Yeah." Scott took in a deep breath. "The guy — Friends of Humanity?"

"He was, yeah," Steve replied.

"I didn't know they'd escalated…" Scott swallowed once and shook his head. "What was he aiming for?"

"He said he was only trying to make a statement. He didn't expect to break his wing, but it doesn't matter. He wasn't sorry until he was caught."

Scott fell into a glare at that but nodded. "Sounds about right," he said, forgetting to hold back the anger for a second as he looked toward where Angel had fallen. "Who caught him?"

"Tony did," Steve replied. "I know you won't listen, but it might be smart to keep your team out of the spotlight for a little while. We're more than happy to handle whatever you need in the meantime."

"Our problem, Cap," he said dully. "It's not like we haven't done this before."

"I know," Steve replied in a thick tone. "But that was part of the reason we started our swapping program right? To help fight each other's battles? You and your team aren't alone in this."

At that, Scott paused and turned toward Steve before he looked suddenly very tired. "Thank you," he said.

Steve put his hand on Scott's shoulder. "Come on, I'll take you to him."

Scott gestured for Steve to lead the way, and Steve kept a hand on Scott's shoulder as he steered Scott to where Angel was. Scott didn't get more than a few steps in before he stopped, and his shoulders slumped at the sight of his old friend laid out on a metal table, mostly covered by a sheet, since a fall from that height...

Hank arrived a little while later, looking much more obviously upset than the simply very still Scott over the whole thing, before he started to speak with the medical examiner about the arrangements that needed to be made.

With that done, Scott finally cleared his throat and turned toward Steve again. "I'll … I'll let you know when everything is arranged," he said heavily. "When they arraign this guy… let me know."

"Absolutely," Steve promised, looking like he would bend over backward for Scott right then and there. "And please, if you need  _anything_..."

"Yeah," Scott said, nodding once. "Thanks." He turned to Hank and shared a nod with him before the two of them headed back to the mansion together, where already, a few friends were starting to gather once the word had started to spread.

Scott barely got into the house before Jubilee nearly tackled him in a hug, though she didn't say a word, instead openly crying, her shoulders shaking the whole time while he pulled her into a tight hug and didn't let go until she was done. And even after she'd stepped back, still wiping her eyes, he made it maybe another step before someone else hit him. Kate wasn't crying as hard as Jubilee had been, but she seemed determined to make sure he had a solid hug and for once didn't have a witty comment for him.

When it was K's turn to get a hold of Scott, she very carefully wrapped him up and gave him her very warmest, tight hug for as long as he wanted it, almost starting it out with a kiss to his temple, whispering out how sorry she was for the loss and just keeping him tight. But when he finally started to let go, she took his hand and led him right to Betsy, who had finally tried to gather herself up, though she was failing miserably and crying still.

Scott sat down beside her quietly and then very gently reached over to pull his arm around her shoulders as he told her in a voice that surprised him with how hoarse it was, "Hank's already talked to the right people. We'll take care of everything."

She turned into him and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder before she finally managed to choke out a "thank you," and Scott just pulled her into a tight hug for as long as she needed it.

* * *

Jolie was worried about her dad.

He had already been pretty sad when Neil had died, but now, he looked even sadder. He was slow and tired and kept taking off his glasses to rub his eyes. Or sometimes, she would catch him staring at nothing.

She wanted to do something to help.

She caught him staring off into space again a little after dinner and decided to climb into his lap, rubbing her face against him and purring lightly until he smiled down at her and hugged her. "You okay, Daddy?"

Hank let out a sigh as he hugged her. "I will be."

"Everyone is sad about Angel dying," Jolie said, still snuggling into her dad. "It's okay. Mom says it's okay being sad."

"She's a very smart woman," Hank agreed with a soft smile.

"You say that a lot," Jolie giggled.

"Well, then, it must be true," Hank said, getting Jolie to giggle all over again.

Jolie rubbed her face into her Dad's shoulder, hugging him a little better and purring and trying to cheer him up, but when he still looked so tired and so sad, she thought about it for a moment before she tried something new: "Can you tell me about your friend?"

Hank blinked. "Pardon?"

"You musta loved him lots to be so sad," Jolie said. "Can you tell me 'bout him?"

Hank let out a long breath, stroking her fur gently. "He was one of my oldest friends," he told her softly. "We've known each other for decades, since we were younger, very different men." He smiled lightly. "You would have hardly recognized us."

Jolie smiled and settled in, more than happy to listen as her dad talked in a soft, obviously emotion-filled voice about the original five X-Men and how they met and how they came to be good friends.

Her dad didn't tell old stories like this very often, and she decided then and there that she wanted to hear more of them.

* * *

Even though the authorities were in possession of the recording of the live feed Angel's shooter had put up, Tony was on top of things, pacing and looking livid while he worked three different lines of communication. He was even trying to get some of his lawyers in to help the prosecution, ready to release the raw footage from the shooter's cell phone to the press if the authorities didn't do their job right. On another line, he was chewing on Fury's ear, insisting that this was an act of terrorism that should be handed over to SHIELD, obviously not trusting the local authorities.

He wasn't sure which angle was going to stick, but it was clear Tony was on a mission to make sure it stuck. "These creeps wanted to make a statement, so let's make the statement. And it's that you can't just go shooting people because you don't like one of their genes," Tony was saying in an obviously heated tone. "The courts have confirmed that  _homo superior_ is a part of  _homo sapiens_ , so this — this is a clear case of murder. Cold blooded murder."

He was ranting pretty heavily when Cap finally just walked away from him, rubbing one hand over his eyes. They'd done everything that they could do for the time being. There were already charges filed, and even without Tony's pushing, the prosecutor's' office was not in the mindset to let something so public go. Mutant or not, Warren Worthington III was a powerful man in the city and they couldn't let that go.

He headed over to where a few of his teammates were still watching the news and took a seat on the arm of the couch. Carol had taken up residence in the loveseat with Leslie Ann — the two of them got along surprisingly well — while Clint was seated between both Jess and Natasha watching the news.

"Stark blow a gasket yet?" Clint said quietly to Steve

"He's working on it," Steve replied. "Tearing down Fury and trying to get one of his sharks into the prosecutor's office right now."

"Sounds about right," Clint said with a little nod.

"How're the others?" Jess asked, looking up from the screen as the newscast hit a commercial break.

"They're all pretty shell-shocked," Steve said frankly. "Apparently, Angel's wife is holed up at the Institute right now. I told Logan that the lawyers are looking for her already. Trying not to put anymore on Cyclops if I can help it."

"Is he okay?" Leslie Ann asked as she picked her head up off of Carol's shoulder.

"He's … Angel was on the first team with him," Steve said. "He wasn't active anymore; everyone thought he was safe just doing charity work. Turned out that was what made him a target. He was too successful at it."

A little frown creased Leslie Ann's forehead as she shook her head. "That's just an excuse."

"It is," Steve agreed. "I still think it's because he was one of the originals."

"He was a target because of  _what_ he is," Leslie Ann said, then let out a little sigh. "This is why I left the team. Too many funerals."

"It's not going to be like this forever," Steve said gently. "They get the worst of it because they're the ones making sure that mutants don't get railroaded."

"You tell 'em we'll step in for whatever they need?" Clint asked, leaning his head back to look at Steve.

"Of course I did," Steve said with a frown. "I think we'll just have to step in anyway. I don't think Scott will ask for help otherwise."

"He won't," Leslie Ann agreed, this time with a small smirk.

"Then it's a good thing we have a few inside eyes," Steve replied with a little smile her way.

* * *

The X-Men were still dressed in their best, and Betsy had held it together for the service, though she allowed her shoulders to drop once she was back in the mansion, and frankly, she was in a seriously somber mood.

"I'm not sure I want to stay in New York," Betsy admitted to Kurt, who was sticking close to her with an offer to teleport her away from people if she needed it. "Foundation business or not, this never should have happened. And seeing his name on the building ..."

"No one would blame you if you went elsewhere," Kurt told her with one arm around her shoulders as they walked together. "Not one soul."

"I don't think it will be permanent," she said, smirking at him slightly. "But with all the business that they want me to look after, and all of the press … I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave Storm short another instructor for a while."

"I doubt she'd mind, all things considered," he promised with a small smile. "And you know if you need any help — well. I don't know that I can help with the business, but the rest…" He gave her a crooked grin. "I'm sure I can fend off a few rabid reporters. With swords if need be."

"Oh, you think you can," she said, giving his arm a squeeze. "I can handle it perfectly well myself, but these old money types stateside still seem to think that I'm either just a dizzy model or an old X-Man." She waved one hand as if she was swatting at a pesky fly. "The board's lawyers are already swarming, trying to get me to sign over control. Idiots."

"Yes, well, perhaps I'm not the person to speak to about that," he admitted. "My wife is the businesswoman."

"I've handled the Braddock family affairs for years," she told him. "This is more of the same with a different handle."

"Just be careful," Kurt told her seriously. "Kate has been dealing with the same thing for years, and it is not always easy"

She leaned her head on his shoulder. "I know," she said letting out a breath. "But I share lawyers with Tony Stark. There is no problem here. Though I could use a little relaxation. Perhaps a swashbuckling interlude. Know anywhere a psychic ninja can play around like that? Take out some aggression?"

At that, Kurt smiled and stepped slightly back from her to bow deeply. "Your wish," he said a moment before he teleported both of them to the Danger Room, "is my command." Already, a few of the bamfs had arrived with swords, grinning at the prospect of a swordfight to watch.

She gave him a soft smile and tossed her coat to the side of the room before she took a ready stance — no katana in sight, except for the one that had manifested of pure psychic energy.

Kurt tipped his head up to the booth as Kate and then Logan arrived in little poofs of purple, and in an instant, they understood what was up as Kate rushed to set up a classic for Kurt — pirates, out in the rigging.

"Oh, good," Logan said in a breath as he took a seat at the controls. "She needs this."

"Pirate therapy," Kate agreed over her shoulder.

"Pirate versus ninja is always fun," he agreed, tweaking the program to send in a few more pirates.

Down in the Danger Room, Kurt had already swept up the feathered hat that appeared at his feet and settled it on his head as he gestured to Betsy. "You are the captain this time, I think," he said.

She smiled at him for just an instant before she made a running leap at the pirate captain opposing them. The psychic katana sliced under his defenses as Betsy pulled off a complicated little move that had her sliding on one knee past him, jamming the katana into his center. She smoothly got to her feet, making the entire sequence of movements look choreographed as she turned, driving the psychic blade across two other men in a single fluid motion.

Kurt dove in after her, getting both swords involved at first before he pulled his blade across the middle of one of the men and disarmed him with the other sword, tossing the sword in the air to catch it with his tail before he used that sword to impale a pirate headed his way, using the man's momentum against him. He pulled the sword back and then held it over his head, grinning impishly.

One of the pirates came close — almost too close — to cutting Betsy across her torso, but she simply turned her head to the side and bent backwards as the blade missed her by such a fine margin that Kurt wasn't altogether sure if it had at first. But when she popped up with a kick aimed at the man's nose, there was no doubt that Betsy was just getting warmed up.

"You should spar with her sometime," Logan said, bumping Kate's arm. "She's fun."

"I think I may just," Kate agreed.

"It's no fun for us anymore," he told her, gesturing to the side of his head. "We've got a psychic rapport. Cheating goes both ways. No surprises."

"Yeah, that would take all the fun out of everything," Kate had to agree. "But it would be fun to spar with someone with a different swordfighting style. Kurt and I are both fencers…"

"Well, seeing as you don't want to fight me with swords …" He let the statement fall as Betsy flipped into a handstand and grabbed a pirate around the neck with her ankles, then whipped him over herself.

"I should learn that move," Kate said. "Right? I should totally learn that move."

"You can try," Logan chuckled.

While Logan and Kate were smirking and lightly teasing, Kurt and Betsy drove through the pirates with increasing speed and flair — it seemed both of them were trying to outdo each other.

But when a massive pirate snatched up Kurt with one hand and tried to do the same to Betsy with the other, she let out a cry and let her psychic knife flare outward from her fist before she drove it through the man's heart, dropping him in an instant.

"Now  _that_ ," Logan said, tipping his head to the cleared-out sim. "Hurts."

Kurt was clearly thinking along the same lines, one hand to his chest, though with a thoughtful expression on his face before he put his swords away and walked over to where Betsy was. "I wonder..." he said slowly. "You remember my father,  _ja_?"

"I try desperately not to," she replied as she straightened up her dress, somehow no worse for wear.

"He's been poking his nose into my family recently," Kurt said. "I'd run him through myself, but he has tied our fates together by a spell, and Kate has strictly forbidden me from running myself through again."

"I'm not entirely sure that my psychic knife would sever those ties," Betsy replied. "But I am well aware of the situation."

"It might be worth a try," Kurt said.

"And if it didn't work to break it, at the least, it would cripple him in pain," Betsy said, smirking with a real sparkle of anger in her eyes. "And … if I concentrate properly, I may be able to simply destroy his mind."

"I wouldn't weep," Kurt told her with a little smirk. "In fact, I imagine I'd sleep more soundly after that than I have in nearly a year."

"I'm certainly stronger in my abilities than I was the last time I attempted that," she said, her arms crossed and one hip cocked out. "But I wouldn't try that without knowing how strong his mind is. No reason for any accidental  _new_ links." She turned toward Logan with a fond smile. "Not that I am upset with the one I have."

"Agreed," Kurt said. "I wouldn't ask you to risk more than you already do."

She gave him a soft smile. "And if I'm in England, how would you suggest this happen? As I understand it, you have no means of knowing when or where he will appear."

"No, but I am actively hunting when I can," Kurt said, then glanced toward the booth. "And I've been told I shouldn't do so on my own. Perhaps you can join me if you ever have the time and inclination."

She bit her lip and glanced toward the booth before projecting out to Kurt,  _Anytime. I want this wrapped up for everyone sooner rather than later._

He smiled at her and then pulled her into a warm hug.  _Danke. I appreciate it._

"I have to take care of my friends, after all," she replied as she squeezed him back. "Seeing as you're all I have now."

"You are family, Betsy," he told her warmly. "If you need anything — anything at all — you know where we are as well."

She gave him another squeeze and glanced up at Logan to blow him a little kiss. "I'll see you all for the holidays," she promised. "I have no desire to be sitting alone at the Braddock Estate."

"We'll make sure to set out a place for you. Things are always busy around here — loneliness is the last thing you'll feel," Kurt promised.


	14. A Declaration Of War

It wasn't too long after Angel's funeral that the X-Men found themselves responding to a mob situation near the city. The Avengers were dealing with troubles down in DC, and frankly, the team responding was in a foul mood and needed to get out there and back in the game.

The ones that went were probably far more firepower than what was required for this particular run, but all things considered, they too had to make a statement of their own. And it was a clear message when Logan, K, Scott, and Kurt were the ones to go to the call. None of them were in a very good mood, and the flight there was silent but for the updates on the situation at hand.

On landing, the four of them spread out to handle the crowd, and on seeing the elite team, the crowd managed to break up pretty quickly. At the center of the crowd were three kids — all of them just barely into puberty, and not a one of them showing a visible mutation — which had all of the X-Men who had responded even angrier.

But for the first time in memory, the police force that had responded to the riot were  _happy_ to see them. It seemed they weren't happy with having to deal with the mob, either, and they were downright fed up with the situation in general. Add to that the fact that the three kids were as young as they were —  _and_ the fact that the only thing that had the crowd on their case was the three bright red tags — and it was a relief for the officers to see the X-Men show up to take care of the aftermath.

Kurt and Scott both focused on the kids, with Scott doing most of the talking until they could determine who could be moved and where before Kurt got moving doing just that, while K talked to the youngest, who was still pretty shaken.

Logan was speaking to the cops when K turned back to get the girl's purse. She had just picked it up off the ground when, in full view in front of the crowd — and the X-Men — someone shot K with a tag. For just an instant, she stared at it in shock, and Scott, Logan, and the cop all stared up at her. No one had tried to take on an on-duty X-Man before. Certainly not publicly.

The cop swore to himself and made to draw his firearm when a low growl split the air — and all at once, K grabbed the tag with her opposite hand and tore it out of her arm with a snarl of pain. The tag hit the ground as K darted into the crowd, her sights clearly on the shooter.

Logan didn't look too concerned, his ear toward the crowd as he heard several shots from the tagging gun go off before he turned to the cop. "How tough is it going to be for you to forget what you saw?"

The policeman gave Logan a raised eyebrow look and then just let out a breathy laugh as K very obviously caught up to the FOH supporter, if his terrified scream was anything to go by. "Man. These jerks have been causing us ten times the paperwork that we've had to do. And it's always the same description of, like … four or five guys from this area. So you know what … yeah, I don't know what you're talking about."

Logan smirked at him as, finally, the guy that had shot K went tearing past them, with at least seven tags on him in various places in both bare skin and right through clothing. K came out of the crowd, brushing her hair out of her face a moment later, calmly walking toward Logan with her nose in the air.

"She that nasty with everyone?" the cop asked Logan with a little smirk.

"Only with idiots that do dumb crap like that," Logan answered, offering her his hand when she got close enough to him and gently pulling her to his side. "The nice officer here seems to have missed the show, sweetheart."

"What show?" K asked, a bit wide-eyed as she handed the gun to the cop with a gloved hand. "I'm sure there are fingerprints on this you might want," she offered.

"Appreciate it," he said with a smirk. "I'm sure we'll have a hard time identifying the guy. No one matches the seven-tag description."

"Oh, well. About that," she said, handing him a wallet with part of a chain attached to it. "I might know where you can find him. Dropped it. Totally random."

"Might," the cop repeated, shaking his head with a light laugh before he pocketed the wallet. "We'll work on picking up his buddies. Be nice not to have an assault charge on our desk every twelve hours from the same guy. Thanks for the leads — that I have no idea where they came from."

"Good luck," Logan told him as he directed K away from the cop. "I'm sure we'll hear about it."

* * *

Steve had just flown in from Washington after far too long dealing with the politicians and people there in the aftermath of not only Angel's death but the rest of the political fallout from the entire year, culminating in the midterms the week prior… It was exhausting and frustratingly intangible and not subject to shield-bashing.

So before he did anything else, he wanted to get his hands on coffee, a bagel, and a newspaper so he could read and eat in some relative peace and quiet before he got back to Avengers Tower to deal with anything else.

He was out of uniform, and even with as public of a figure as he was, it always amazed him that there were times he could get away without being identified — though it helped that he looked jet-lagged and was taking up very little space in his corner seat with his order and his paper. Either way, he was glad for the reprieve, and he read the sports section first, pointedly, just to get a break from everything else. He was thinking he'd hit the funnies next.

At least, that's what he would have done if his attention hadn't been distracted by a disturbance on the other side of the coffee shop.

One of the customers had walked in wearing a red tag — which wasn't unusual at this point, especially considering her age. She couldn't have been older than seventeen at the most, and at first glance, there was no reason to think she wasn't wearing it as a solidarity gesture until one of the other patrons had noticed the gills on the side of her neck that she had tried to hide with a scarf that blew away just the slightest bit when the door opened to let in the cool November air.

The guy who had seen it nudged his friends, who were all about college age and slightly older than the girl with the gills, tipping his head toward the girl as the boys started to nod their understanding and solid agreement, one of them stood to block her path so she couldn't follow the line to order her coffee.

"Nobody wants you here, freak," one of the young men said as he shoved her in the shoulder and out of the line entirely, his friend grabbing hold of the scarf as well to try and wrestle it from her and expose the physical mutation that had given her away.

She fought to keep her scarf, looking desperate to do so as she pleaded with them. "I'll leave, just please, stop," she was saying with a shaky voice.

Before Steve had even thought about it, he'd crossed the length of the restaurant, and the few people who weren't watching the group of young men were watching him and the purposeful, deadly strides until he came to a stop behind the one who had hold of the young woman's scarf and clapped him on the shoulder, yanking him back and around to face him with enough force that it startled the young man into letting go of the scarf.

"Who the hell do you think you are, man?" the kid blurted out as he looked up to see the very angry expression on Steve's face.

Steve pulled him further from the young woman and grabbed the other instigator by the scruff of the jacket to do the same, yanking hard enough that both of them were turned to face him. "You don't know it yet, but you're both in more trouble than you have ever been in your lives," he told them in a dangerous tone.

"Yeah? Count again," said one of the group that Steve was  _not_ holding by the jacket.

"Did you know this city has an anti-harassment law in effect? And a special charge for people stupid enough to blow past that and get right into hate crimes?" Steve almost growled out.

"Yeah, whatever, thanks for the civics lesson man; this isn't your business anyway," one of the young man said, trying to dislodge Steve's grip — unsuccessfully.

"Actually, it is," Steve said, though he didn't get much further than that before the perky little barista behind the counter called out on his behalf.

"Don't you idiots know who that is?" she said above the crowd. "That's Captain America, you morons."

 _That_ got the group of young men to finally shut up as a few of them even swallowed outright, very suddenly realizing how much trouble they were in. A few scattered, but the ones that Steve still had in his grasp weren't going anywhere.  _At all._  Instead, he led them both into a booth and forcibly seated both of them, glaring hard before he looked over his shoulder at the young woman, who was totally wide-eyed. "Sorry about that, Miss. I'm sure these gentlemen will be more than happy to buy your coffee for you for the trouble."

"Thank you," she said quietly, though she definitely didn't want to make eye contact with anyone there. "But I should probably just go."

"Nonsense," Steve said in a gentler tone. "You've got every right to be here."

She glanced up at the counter people, and aside from the outspoken barista, the others manning the counter looked to be in open shock. "I should go," she repeated, backing toward the door. "Thank you, though."

Steve frowned as the girl left before he whirled around to the two young men and whipped his phone out to dial the local authorities. He was still furious by the time the police arrived and he filled them in on what had happened, and Steve was practically looking over their shoulder with his arms crossed through the entire ticketing before he let out a huff of annoyance and left the coffee shop, phone in hand once again. This time it was to ask Jessica Jones to talk to a few of her contacts in the reporting business and put together the fastest, most public press conference she could on short notice. Which was not too difficult once word traveled that it was Captain America requesting the conference.

"There is an epidemic of hatred in this country, and it  _stops now_ ," Steve said without taking any questions, without any preamble, still furious but now much more focused. "Even after everything we've seen — all the history, even the most recent events just weeks ago — apparently, that isn't enough for some people to realize that there's absolutely  _no place_ for bigotry, hatred, and the kind of hate crimes that we're seeing happening in broad daylight right now." He straightened his shoulders, his posture that of a man going to war. "So now, those groups are on notice. The Avengers aren't going to stand by and let  _anyone_ — not one person — be mistreated because of who they are and what they were born to be."

"You come after any one of the mutant citizens of this country — who have done nothing wrong — and you persecute them for the genes they were born with? You answer to the Avengers. You assault anyone for their genetic heritage — with fists or with tags? You answer to the Avengers." Steve tipped his chin up. "And in case some of you are too young to realize it, I've got a long history of personally fighting bigotry and hatred. And a long, long memory. This isn't going to stand any longer."

* * *

At the mansion, the press conference had drawn a few curious onlookers. The teacher's lounge, in particular, was filled with tired teachers — who had transitioned to a sort of shock when Steve's press conference played out in real time, in the most straightforward terms. No one could possibly mistake Steve's play as anything but a declaration of war — on  _behalf_ of the mutants in the country.

Erik was seated closest to the television broadcasting the press conference, his cup of Earl Gray entirely untouched as he watched in pure shock — a strong mirror to Scott on the other side of the room, similarly frozen and obviously surprised by the turn the press conference had taken.

"That's… new," Scott said at last.

"This is what happens when you let him get involved," K said quietly.

"I didn't…" Scott shook his head.

"No, you're too young to have known," she replied.

"No, I didn't ... he involved himself," Scott explained. "Stepped in ... after Angel…"

She got up and crossed the room to take him by the shoulders. "Scott. Sooner or later, this was going to happen once you got him involved. He must have seen something that just pissed him off in person. You know how that is." When he didn't respond right away, she let out a little sigh and wrapped her arms around his middle. "It's a good thing. He's got a real way with people when he's all … riled up."

"He certainly hasn't minced any words or allowed any leeway for interpretation," Erik said with a faint smile as he finally leaned back with his tea and then set it down with a sigh when he realized it had gone cold.

"He did the same thing in the war, only on behalf of the entire military," she told him as she finally let go of Scott then let out a little laugh as she turned toward Erik. "Right.  _You_ were too young to remember that, and this one wasn't even close to born."

"Not something you usually say to me," Scott said with a smirk. "No Papa Scott jokes?"

"Not when apparently I'm the only one that was around to remember this stuff," she countered. "Baby Papa Scott."

"Not sure that works," he pointed out. "One of those things cancels out the others."

"Says you," she laughed. "Not that you know what you're talking about. At all. Obviously." She scrunched up her nose. "Haven't you seen the old newsreels of that spectacularly-spangled fella?"

"Well, yeah," Scott said with a shrug. "The library had 'em all when I was eight."

"Those tiny little snippets with the kids and young people climbing over themselves to get closer to the  _movie screen_ when they'd have him on for two minutes? That was happening all over the country. Everywhere. If he said turn in tin cans, they'd scour the dumps to find them to bring in."

"K, I watched every one of those when I was a kid. I know," Scott pointed out.

"Clearly, you don't," she countered. "Because you seem to be missing the whole part where every single little boy in the whole country was trying to be just like him. Not a few here and there like it is now.  _All of them_."

"And now all of that is directed toward… helping mutantkind," Erik said, both eyebrows high.

K shrugged a little bit as she sat down by Erik again. "We'll have to see how well it works. It's not quite the same environment, but ... I think he's proven himself as a pretty good moral compass for the country."

"Perhaps," Erik agreed, leaning back and closing his eyes. "We'll see how long it lasts."

K covered his hand with hers and gave him a little squeeze. "Let him work his stars and stripes voodoo. He gets just the right balance of outrage and 'lissen here' that works better from him than anyone else I've ever seen. No offense, Scott. You are very inspiring too."

"None taken," Scott said with a little smirk. "I don't have the shield."

"Boys looked at the shield," she laughed. "Everyone else had all the spandex to deal with."

Scott gave her a dry look. "Right."

She put her free hand over her heart and let out a breath. "What a relief. I was afraid he broke you for good."

Scott shook his head, the dry look intensifying. "What, I can't take a moment to be surprised at the Avengers being on our side this  _publicly_ for the first time in, oh,  _ever_?"

"What? I can't take a moment to enjoy the view?" she countered with a grin.

He rolled his eyes at her. "Right. Well. Maybe I should call him, see what we can do to coordinate the teams."

"Unless he calls you first. He'll be fielding press for a little while," she pointed out.

"Right." Scott shook his head as he got to his feet. "We need to replace the coffee filter," he said. "I'll be back, I'm sure."

Scott had hardly left the room to do that before Erik reached over to cover K's hand with his. "Be kind," he said in almost a stern tone.

"Young man," K replied in just as stern a tone. "I was just trying to get his brain in gear for when Steve does come around. What good is it going to do him if he's still in shock?"

Erik laughed and shook his head. "He would have gotten there on his own. Be kind to him."

She leaned forward to kiss his cheek. "I  _am_ kind to him," she promised.

"And to the rest of us," he said with a little smile.

"I pick my favorites," she replied with a raised eyebrow.

"Lucky them," he teased lightly.

"I swear, you just don't like me sometimes," she replied in a breath. "If it's because of my mutation, I have to warn you. I'm gonna tell Steve and then you'll be in trouble. That's an Avengers matter, mister."

"My dear," he said with a laugh, "you are very much mistaken. In fact, I think I prefer your company to nearly anyone else's in this school — except, perhaps, your darling little ones."

"Well, I prefer them myself, so I can understand that completely," she agreed. "Warm up your tea?"

Erik laughed and waved a hand to move the metal tray himself. "I'm not yet an invalid," he said. "But I appreciate the offer."

"Invalid, no. Showoff … well…"

"Believe me: if I were showing off, you would know," he said with a smirk.

"Maybe after tea," she shot back with a smile.

* * *

By dinnertime, Steve had finally gotten away from the press and made a beeline for the mansion — driven, focused, and ready to get more intel on how to handle this particular threat to freedom. Of course, he barely got to the front door before it was opened for him.

"Hello, Captain Rogers," Annie said with a warm smile as she reached out to all but pull him into the mansion.

"Mrs. Summers," he said with a tip of his head. "I hope I'm not intruding, but there was an incident earlier today, and frankly, I need more information from your husband and the team on how to handle it."

"Well, Scott is down in the Danger Room with Logan. They're usually running a training simulation for the junior squad this time of day, but I'm sure they'll be happy to help. I can take you there if you like."

He let out a breath and gave her a smile. "That's alright, ma'am," he replied. "I know the way well enough. I don't want to take you from whatever it was you were involved with."

"Just got the kids settled down, actually," she told him, gesturing toward the living room, where most of the underage kids were gathered playing games. "I've been homeschooling now, you know — ever since we took them out of public school."

He had to smile their way as he looked over the group of snuggled up kids. "Hopefully, you'll be able to send them back soon enough if they want to go," he said, a bit softer, though he shook his head as he looked at them. "They're a lot bigger than I remember them being. All of them."

Annie looked toward the group of kids and broke into a wider smile. "You know the twins turn eight soon," she said. "And James is going to be old enough to start Kindergarten next fall."

"Doesn't seem like it's been that long," he admitted with a smile, then stepped around the room quietly. "Thanks, Annie."

"Anytime. You know you're always welcome here," she said with a grin.

He took one last glance at the snuggled up kids — and had to wave when Elin cracked a smile at him — but after that, he was right back to business all the way down to the control booth of the Danger Room, where Logan, of course, greeted him before he got all the way in the door with a low "Hey Cap."

"I think we need to compare notes — if you have time," Steve said. "We need to know what we're up against and what works, just to save time and effort. We really don't know much about this whole tagging thing other than what we've run across  _with_ you during the exchanges."

"Sure," Scott said with a little nod. "You know we're happy to compare notes. But can you wait with us until the junior squad is finished? They're almost through." He gestured to where Jana seemed to be talking to absolutely nothing until Eleanor appeared out of nowhere above her head, snatching away an MRD rifle so Jana could lay into the guy — one of the last in the group.

"Sure," Steve said, quickly taking a seat with his hat in his hands to wait for them to finish up their exercise.

It wasn't much longer before the squad was through, and even the newer members, Brandon and Eleanor, had done well — possibly helped along by Brye spotting Steve in the booth and passing along the news of their audience.

"Is that Deadpool's daughter?" Steve asked with a little smirk.

Scott nodded. "She just made the squad this semester," he said. "She had to convince her father first."

"Wade didn't want to let her in?" Steve laughed. "Even with Uncle Wolvie involved?"

"Wade would wrap her in bubble wrap until she was twenty-nine — and even then, I'm not sure he'd let up," Scott said with a smirk. "Lisbet helped her case."

"How so?" Steve asked, still watching as the kids slowly filed out of the Danger Room.

"She pointed out that she's got the element of surprise down to an art and that she's top of her class in sneaking," Scott explained. "Even Lisbet can't find her if she wants to hide. Something goes wrong, no one will find her to make it worse."

"That's one way to handle it, not that I think Ellie would stay hiding for one second."

"No, but it's the right argument to make to a worried father," Scott said. "Especially given the climate — which is what you came to talk about." He killed the sim and got to his feet. "What do you need?"

Steve drew in a breath, held it for a moment, and then let his shoulders drop. "More or less what I said. We need more specifics. When we've participated in rescues with you, honestly, it's been a basic pick up and then hand off to medical, and I don't want to swamp Hank with that kind of workload once mutants start flocking to the tower." He gave him a look. "And you know it's going to happen sooner rather than later now that the Avengers are on record working on this. How are the other locations handling it?"

"Chicago has Lucy and Tyler working double-time," Scott told him. "And Annie's sister and brother-in-law both worked for the WHO before they signed on with Storm, so they've been handling things just fine there."

"So it has to be a medical extraction regardless," Steve said with a frown. "What about disabling the inhibitors? Is that a separate process?"

"Shadowcat can do both — but she's running things in Chicago. We can usually turn them off after the removal — but yeah, it's a medical issue. We want to get scans done to make sure we won't tear an important artery or to make sure it's not in bone before we pull it."

"That happens? They will go into bone?" Steve looked more horrified than he had a few moments earlier, but Scott couldn't tell if he was tilting toward anger or disbelief.

"You saw what happened with Angel," Scott said in a tired tone. "The wrong hit can do real damage. Warren's wing humerus was broken which was why he couldn't fly. And a straight shot to the chest can be fatal."

Steve got quiet for a moment and seemed to be processing everything. "How often has that happened?"

"Until Angel… only when that was what they were aiming for in the first place." Scott let out a breath. "Half dozen times that I'm aware of off the top of my head. Probably more than that if local law enforcement covered it up."

"Yeah, that's gonna stop," Steve said with a set to his jaw.

"So you said," Scott said. He paused and tipped his head Steve's way. "Can I ask ... what changed? You've never taken this much of an interest before."

He let out a breath and shook his head. "I never got involved before because I kept hearing that you guys had it covered. And I thought you did. I mean, you handled aliens and Magneto when none of us would have had half a chance. So we left it alone," Steve admitted. "But, honestly, I never really saw much of that kind of thing. I don't know if that's because they knew who I was, or it just didn't … work out, timing-wise. But I finally saw it. When no one knew who I was. And it was so blatant. So … much like they all thought it was normal and something that just didn't matter while this girl was  _terrified._ I got … mad."

Scott nodded along to every word as he walked along with Steve. "Yeah, I know the feeling."

"I know it's a little bit weak on my part, but I guess this whole back and forth with the teams has had me thinking about it a lot more — and paying attention. But even with that … I can't believe it's gotten this far right under my nose. Everything about this is ridiculous."

"I suppose now isn't the time to tell you it's been worse," Scott said with almost a smirk.

"No, that's just it," Steve said, throwing one hand up. "In retrospect, I can see it.  _All of it_. You know I fought the registration tooth and nail because I didn't want to see exactly this happening. I can't believe this was going on for so long  _before_  the registration even became an issue again."

Scott nodded as they came to a stop outside Hank's lab. "Well, you're on board now," he said. "And we've kept every tag that's been removed on the premises — and a few off-site. You're welcome to a few. It's easier to understand how they work when you've got them in your hands."

Steve smirked at that. "No kidding. I'm sure Tony will work up something. He's been looking for a project. K's little ideas notwithstanding, he's churning out gadgets like crazy."

"If he can find a way to disable them without resorting to surgery—"

"I'm sure he can," Steve said. "You know how he is."

* * *

When Steve poked his head into Tony's workshop, he was surprised when Tony was the one to turn off the music first — that ready to rant to someone about his findings.

"So, the way these creepy little things even  _work_ is despicable," Tony started to explain. "The stupid things don't even turn ON until they've been embedded into the skin — and then they use the host as their power source. No battery. No outside force to turn them on. But that also means that they're tricky little buggers to turn off, too."

Steve nodded. "Not that you didn't figure that out."

Tony nodded grimly before he launched into it. "Once they're out, they'll die out on their own in a matter of hours. And I'll be honest; I think that's a nod to our healing friends. Keep 'em down and out and dead long enough and it would probably stick. But I digress. I  _did_ manage to make a nifty little device. Big one stays in the tower for all of our refugee incoming mutant friends. We can just kill the rotten tags as they walk in the door; I'll hook it into our power source here. Little ones … those are just fun. I have a few different options. One … is not of anyone's concern but mine. I'm putting them in my suit. But the other one should go in the blackbird, Quinjets — anywhere our guys will be travelling so they can take it with them." He held up a little device, about the size of a ballpoint pen, and tapped the button on the end. "Fifteen foot radius — kills all the tags. Boom. Fries their circuits — and nothing else." Tony was grinning by the time he finished. "Small enough to hide in your spangly outfit somewhere. I know you have a pocket in there somewhere to carry your AARP card. This will fit with that and enough change to buy the early bird coffee special. I'm sure."

"Money clip," Steve corrected with a smirk.

"Potato, tomato." Tony waved. "The  _point,_ Granpappy Cappy, is that everyone can carry them. No one should be unable to flip these tags off at any point in time. But outside of that? They'll still need to go seek medical attention. The barbs on these things are just too nasty to tear out without taking a chunk out of yourself. Cyclops was right — if this was anywhere near something vital, it would absolutely kill you." He tapped the barbed end with the end of his new tag killer. "I think that was the intention, to be honest."

Steve frowned at that. "I thought there were only half a dozen deaths. There's hundreds of these tags, maybe more. If it was meant to be lethal, we'd have heard of more cases."

"You'd only hear about it if they pulled them out. So far, no one has done that yet. At least... no one has shown up in an ER or something like that," Tony pointed out. "My point, though, is that they were  _intended_ to maim or kill. My lawyerly sense is tingling saying that whoever designed this — and I have his name and patent number already on my law firm head's desk — did so with intent to do great bodily harm at  _least,_ and first degree murder if they could manage it."

Steve's frown was turning into a more serious glare the more he heard, and by the time Tony was done, he was mad all over again. "They should have called us in on this ages ago… We should have stepped in; this has gotten out of control."

"Why?" Tony said, looking frustrated himself. "When they were getting  _collars_ slapped on them, we didn't step in. Why would they have come to us for this?"

Steve let out a noise of frustration and passed a hand over his face. "No," he had to admit. "We didn't." He sat down on one of the benches near the worktable where Tony had scattered a few of the tags. "How's Howard?"

"He's fine," Tony said in a huff. "Why do you ask?"

Steve shook his head lightly. "Well, mutations tend to show up around puberty; that puts a bit of a deadline on things for you…"

Tony shook his head and tossed the device on his workbench. "It's not just Howard," Tony said. "The geneticists are right. This is the next step in evolution. More and more of these kids are born every year, and less and less of them  _don't_ have the X-gene. Everything they warned you about happening... the mass hysteria and people acting like idiots, turning on  _kids_  — because really, Cap, that's who they're going after. Not the adults so much. There are hardly any adult mutants alive anymore, in case you missed it. It's all aimed at the kids. Think about it."

"You don't have to tell me; I saw it," Steve said with a glare.

"But whenever it's an issue, what do they do? They show mutant villains that have been dead for years — and the damage they did — to use as a warning. Or they put up the few that are still alive and kicking for shock factor. At least the character assassination on the X-Men individually has dipped back a little," Tony said. "Though most of that has to do with every press organization fearing the cease and desist from Matt Murdock that the Howletts have ready to go at the first invitation of slander or libel."

"He's enjoying himself," Steve said with a smirk. "I don't think he's had this much to do and this many people to take down in a long time."

"I still wish I'd been a fly on the wall when he sat down with the two of them," Tony said.

Steve chuckled, shook his head, and then stood up. "Alright. We'll make sure every Avenger has one of those devices—"

"I have them for the X-Men too; everyone should be covered," Tony said. "I'm flying out to Cali at the end of the week. I'll bring them theirs."

Steve nodded at that. "Thanks, Tony."


	15. A Little Hope For The Future

By the time Christmas rolled around, things were actually looking up. With the Avengers  _very_ publicly on their side and with much of the political fight  _over_ … the X-Men were going into the New Year cautiously optimistic.

And, of course, it was an opportunity for them to get together after their first semester of separation at the three different schools, so the Christmas cheer was spreading quickly.

Billy and Teddy brought their twins along with them for the celebrations, and Tommy had shown up out of the blue again after a long period of doing his own thing — which meant he was almost always in a pile of Kaplan twins being the  _best uncle ever,_ chasing them around and wrestling and generally being the goofball that he always had been.

But the twins had their favorites — and when they spotted Erik joining the group, they ran over to climb onto his lap, babbling excitedly to him over their various little kid adventures, from the rock that Harry had found that looked really cool to the time Sammy had skinned her knee.

Erik listened to their stories with rapt attention — while Tommy was watching  _him_ with the same attention, a funny sort of look on his face before he zipped over to where Hank was talking with Scott about something… that Tommy didn't really care about.

"Umm. Did Erik have another stroke that no one told me about?" he asked, tapping Hank on the shoulder to get his attention with his eyebrows knitted together.

"No," Hank replied quietly. "Why do you ask?"

"He just looks…" Tommy gestured beyond them to his grandfather, who was still totally wrapped up in the twins.

"Old?" Hank offered. "That is a natural thing that happens to men his age."

"Yeah, but not  _that_ much," Tommy said. "I mean… last time I saw him…"

"Yes, actually," Hank replied. "You just haven't been around to see him lately. There's nothing we can do to stop the aging process, I'm afraid."

Tommy frowned, bouncing slightly on the balls of both feet. "He's never looked like  _that_ before," he muttered.

"He's never been this old before," Hank pointed out.

Tommy's frown seemed to deepen for a long moment as he ran his hands through his hair. "Should I ... I mean, is there anything I should be doing?" he asked after a moment.

"You should spend some time with him while you can." Hank let out a little breath. "He is on the decline. We're doing all that we can, but I'm afraid there is nothing to be done about it."

"Yeah, but he's  _Magneto_. I mean…" Tommy shook his head. "Always figured he'd live to be, like, two hundred — and be grumpy about it the whole way down."

"As charming as that would be, I'm afraid that's just not the way that this is going to work."

Tommy considered this for a long time before he suddenly spun to face Scott. "Hey," he said, as if something had just occurred to him, "is that invite to the team still a thing?"

"Door is open," Scott said. "You'll have to work with the team, of course."

"Yeah, no, I got that. I heard that before, just…" Tommy shook his head. "You got a room I can use? Maybe near Erik? You know. Seeing as he's all…" He waved his hand in Erik's direction, trying very hard to play it off and failing horribly.

Scott smirked and nodded. "I'm sure we can set you up," he told him. "Though I should warn you: he's rarely alone, if it's his company you're worried about."

"Yeah?" Tommy asked, brightening up the slightest bit.

"We all take a little time with him, but K and Logan have been keeping tabs on him," Hank told him. "Making sure that he doesn't slip too far, too fast."

"Ah, no offense? But what, exactly, do the Nose and the Growl have to do with my grandpa's health?" Tommy asked.

"The nose," Hank replied. "They can scent when something is off."

"And… it's off a lot?" Tommy asked in what he probably meant to be a casual tone.

"You'd have to ask them," Hank said with a smile. "They tend to gently correct him when needed."

Tommy considered this for only a second before the "thanks" he called to Hank was all that was left of him as he disappeared in a flash down the hall, very nearly bowling K over as he skidded into the first Howlett he saw and wrapped her in a hug.

"Are you okay?" K asked, only then returning the hug.

"Fine," he promised as he gave her one more squeeze and then straightened up. "How come no one told me Erik was having — I mean — if I'd known he was all shaky hands and knobbled knees, I'd have been here earlier and—"

"How old is he?" K asked. "This kind of thing is natural. If he was slipping fast, or if I had any reason to think he was on his very last leg, I'd have called."

"I… I don't actually know how old he is?" Tommy admitted sheepishly. "We weren't… close until a few years ago."

"Well, you know now. He's starting to slip."

"What's that  _mean_ , though?" Tommy asked. "Mentally? Physically? Mutation...ally?"

"Little bit of yes across the board?" K replied with a little shrug. "Less on the mental side. Mutation seems to be weakening, though he has moments where it's strong and he can't entirely control it. And physically … he's old."

"He's always been old," Tommy said, a little grumpily, as he crossed his arms and dropped into a seat on the nearest sofa.

"Well. Yeah. But."

"Yeah. I know. Old- _er_ ," Tommy grumbled.

"Just spend some time with him," she suggested. "Pretty sure you're his favorite anyhow."

Tommy laughed and shook his head. "Me? No way. I'm nobody's favorite. Billy's got the awesome kids and the handsome husband anyhow."

"No, no, I don't think so. The way I understand it, you're like a fresh breath of air down memory lane."

"Yeah, you never met Quicksilver, did you?" he teased, getting up and stretching out his arms and legs before he draped one arm around her shoulders.

"No, but I'm pretty sure that was what the 'breath of fresh air' portion was addressing."

"Uh-huh." He shook his head at her before he gave her a quick one-armed hug. "Anyway, thanks for looking out for my grandpa. Now I know, I'll make more of an effort to be around, so, hey, breath of fresh air… maybe more just a breeze as I pass you by," he teased before he did just that, disappearing once more in a rush of a breeze past her to go back to where the rest of the group was gathered.

Erik still had Sammy and Harry, though Magda and Michael had joined the group now, not quite telling stories but playing with their toys in Erik's vicinity and occasionally asking him to "watch this" as cars, dolls, and other toys would crash or otherwise have adventures for him to appropriately ooh and ahh over.

Tommy paused in the doorway before he finally zipped over to sit in the little group, holding up a handful of new toys for the kids with a grin before he sat up next to Erik to watch the kids go to town — with Magda cheerfully leading the way in the toy car races.

"I guess I let time get away from me," Tommy said. "Last time I saw 'em, Billy's twins didn't talk  _nearly_ this much."

"Their parents have done miracles with them," Erik agreed with a little smile as he watched the twins in question arguing over who got to play with the bigger truck.

"Yeah, well, that's my brother, the miracle-working demigod," Tommy pointed out, leaning back with his hands behind his head.

"They love having you around; you must have noticed," Erik said.

"I bring 'em toys," Tommy said with a grin.

"You spend the time with them," Erik said.

Tommy shrugged easily. "Kids're easy," he said. "All they wanna do is screw around and have fun.  _Way_ easier to deal with than adults."

"They appreciate having someone who shares their worldview," Erik chuckled lightly.

"Yeah, well." Tommy shrugged lightly. "So hey, I hear the place is a lot emptier with everyone in Chicago and LA, so I figured, why not come back?" He reached over to knock on the wood side table. "You know, try again, hopefully don't get stabbed again."

Erik raised an eyebrow his way. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Tommy said with a little nod. "I already talked with Cyclops and everything; he's gonna find me a room. You know, now that it's not a zoo in here anymore."

Erik smiled lightly. "I'm glad to hear it."

* * *

Since New Year's Eve was also Charlie's birthday, the kids had been invited over to the Summers' place for a slumber party to celebrate.

Sying in particular was excited about the slumber party, since he'd sorely missed his friends while he was in LA and wanted to spend as much time as possible with them. So, he showed up first with a little wrapped present and a grin that he presented to Charlie.

"Happy birthday!" he declared, and she wrapped up her friend in a hug.

"And happy birthday to the year," Chance teased his sister.

"And then it's your birthday," Charlie shot back, grinning, since now that the twins were older, they liked having the separation of different days.

"Yeah. You gotta start off right," Chance said, shaking his head back and forth.

"And end it right too," Charlie pointed out.

Sying laughed at his friends and shook his head as Krissy was the next to arrive, giggling when she saw the expressions on everybody's faces. "Are they arguing again?" she asked Sying as she sat down next to him.

"Not really?"

"They like to do that," Krissy explained, offering him a packet of fruit snacks that she had clearly snuck up from the kitchen.

"Okay," he said, grinning as he popped a few of the snacks in his mouth. "What about you?"

"I don't argue with them," she said.

He giggled. "No, I mean: how is school with Miss Annie?"

"Oh!" She grinned, and her tail swished lazily and happily behind her. "I like it. It's a lot more fun than the other school I went to  _last_ year."

"That's really good," he said, grinning at her honestly.

"What about your school way far away?"

"It has an  _ocean_!" Sying told her, his eyes so wide and excited that Krissy couldn't help but laugh at him.

"Do you build sand castles?"

"Yeah!" He nodded. "Lots and lots."

"Well then I wanna come over more," Krissy decided.

"You  _should_ ," Sying agreed, grinning wider. "I bet my mom and dad would let you stay with us."

"They like me," Krissy agreed, giggling.

"He likes you too, you know," Charlie cut in, her tone one that said it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Everybody likes me!" Krissy giggled, not noticing that Sying had turned pink.

"Yeah, but he  _likes_ you," Charlie said with an unconcerned shrug as she went to answer the door to let Elin in.

She had her teddy bear and her pillow in her arms. "Are we sleepin' over?" Elin asked.

"Mmhmm," Charlie said, grinning at her friend as she directed her toward where all the other kids were. "Krissy brought her teddy bamf and everything."

"Okay, let's set up a blanket fort," Elin suggested. "Then we can pretend it's a tent."

"I'll help," Chance offered immediately, scrambling to start gathering pillows and blankets as quickly as he could, while Charlie rolled her eyes.

"He likes her a  _lot_ ," she told Krissy and Sying in a conspiratory whisper.

"Yeah no duh," Krissy said, rolling her eyes at the older girl. "We've known that for a long time."

"Yeah, but…" Charlie shrugged both shoulders up. "I  _know_ he likes her."

"We all do," Sying laughed.

"My papa says he's a flirt and that he gets it honestly," Krissy reported with a little giggle. "He says Scott is in  _tro-uble_."

Charlie grinned widely at the little elfling and leaned forward. "My dad says the same thing about  _you_ ," she informed Krissy with a wicked smile.

Krissy looked wide-eyed for a moment as her tail stood up straight behind her before she shoved Charlie in the arm. "I am  _not_."

"You kind of are," Sying pointed out, which had Charlie cackling with glee when Krissy tried to push him too — and couldn't budge him an inch.

"It's not a  _bad_ thing," Charlie said diplomatically. "It just means you like boys." She paused, grinned, and added in a sing-song voice. "Like Sa-a-a-am."

Krissy flushed bright pink and buried her face in her hands as Sying looked suddenly curious. "Who's Sam?"

" _Nobody_ ," Krissy insisted, though she was granted a reprieve when the others joined them.

"What are we doing tonight?" Elin asked Chance as the two of them finished up their little corner of the blanket fort — surrounded by pillows and stuffed animals. "Are we watching that same movie  _again_?"

"No. Star Wars this time," Charlie said. "Cause Sying is here and it's his favorite and he's not always here."

"I guess that's okay," Elin said, snuggling down with her teddy bear behind her. "Better than princesses."

"I  _like_ princesses," Krissy said with her nose in the air.

"That's because you think you  _are_ one," Elin pointed out. "A pirate princess."

"Uh-huh. That's what my papa says!" Krissy said brightly.

"They don't have any pirate princess movies," Elin said with a little frown. "Or that might be good."

Krissy grinned triumphantly as she leaned forward. "Yeah-huh," she said, seriously. "Princess Buttercup and the DREAD PIRATE WESLEY!" She shouted that last part as she leapt to her feet, pretending to hold a sword in one hand.

"Not the same," Elin sang out before she rolled onto her stomach and propped her head up in her hands.

"Yeah it i-i-i-i-s," Krissy sang back to her friend. "You're just mad 'cause you didn't think of it!"

"I don't remember any swashbuckling in the rigging," Elin said.

"There were swordfights and boats and big, big rats!"

"Not in the rigging."

"Well," Chance said diplomatically, "Wesley  _is_ a pirate, though."

"He just dressed like a pirate," Elin said with a little smirk. "But it's okay. He would probably fall from the rigging anyhow."

"Nu-uh. He's the Dread Pirate Roberts!" Krissy said insistently, shaking her head hard enough that her braids went with her. "You're just being  _mean_ 'cause you didn't think of the princess pirate movie and  _I did!_ "

"No, no," Elin said, shaking her head. "I just didn't like that movie."

Krissy sniffed. "Well that's your problem," she said in a perfect imitation of her mother. "That doesn't mean it doesn't have princesses and pirates. So  _ha_."

Elin just giggled at her and made a quick move to tackle her into the pillows. "You're  _silly._ "

Krissy giggled delightedly as she wrestled with her best friend. "That's because I'm an Elf!" she declared as she did so.

When the two of them were finished wrestling around, they both snuggled up, arm in arm, giggling and half out of breath.

And meanwhile, in New York, their mothers were doing more or less the same thing over a glass of champagne, arms around each other's shoulders as they giggled over watching Tommy half tripping over himself trying to excuse away why he'd  _suddenly_ decided he wanted to teach mechanics at the school and desperately pretending it wasn't because his grandfather was at the Westchester location.

"He was like this when we dated too, you know," Kate told K through her giggles.

"Wishy-washy with crap excuses?" K asked.

"Trying to be 'tough guy; don't care'," Kate laughed. "Which… he so can't pull off. At all."

K was chuckling to herself as she tipped back her champagne. "I just can't even see the attempt."

"Well you missed the dramatic teenage years," Kate said. "It was more pronounced back then. He's sort of mellowed with age, if you can believe it."

"Ah," K said, nodding slowly. "Then when are you going to mellow?"

"I'm only thirty-four. I'm not like Papa Scott and his silver linings over there," Kate said, gesturing to where Scott and Annie were chatting with Bobby and Rachel — amicably.

"Uh-huh." K shot Kate a grin. "You still look like my big sister though."

Kate let out a dramatic sigh and made a show of rolling her eyes. "By, like,  _maybe_ a couple years."

"Yes. Yes. A couple years. Good. I am going to just go ahead and have another drink while you reminisce about your ex …"

"That's  _so_ not what's happening here," Kate said with a little glare. "I'm just saying that's why he's all… like he is."

"Whatever you say, sis.… I think this is one of those rare moments where I might be able to liquor up my date."

Kate grinned at that. "Think you could get him to sing for me? For a birthday present?"

"I know I could get him to sing for  _me._ "

"That's not what I asked you to do."

K thought it over, working her jaw. "I guess that depends on what your request might be, tune- wise."

"I'd love a good serenade, but those drinking songs of his are always a riot," Kate said. "Dealer's choice."

"I guess we'll have to see what kind of mood he's in by the time I get him all liquored up."

Kate grinned at her friend. "Aww, I knew you loved me," she said as she leaned her head against K's.

"A warning, though," K said before she gave Kate a kiss on the cheek. "There is a very, very,  _very_ fine line between drunken singing and drunken-needs-kisses."

"As long as one of those things comes before the others, I don't care. I'll be getting Elf kisses later anyway."

"Usually? But …"

"If it's going that way, I'll send my tenor and they'll sing a duet," Kate teased.

"Perfect," she agreed before spinning Kate toward Kurt and headed right for Logan with a bottle of whiskey in her hand.

* * *

A time zone away, in a very empty child's room, a tall and familiar blonde was walking slowly through the room, running one long, claw-tipped finger over every surface, just taking it all in. The room was tidy and bright and far too overloaded with soft tones that simply didn't mesh with the man in the room, even if he resembled the child's father beyond any shadow of doubt.

He'd planned to say hello to the little family — especially since it had been almost a year since the last time he'd seen them. But of course he knew that they'd be gone — off to the X-Men headquarters in Westchester, where all the rest of the white-hat-wearing morons were gathered up.

Of course, Victor had found a way into the school in Chicago — it was on his turf, after all. And he had watched and paid attention to every single stage of development as the building went up. The tech that the Kree roach had integrated into the system was hard to get through, but the items Creed had stolen from Stark were more than enough to work through — or at least mimic something more friendly.

He couldn't manage to get in to the Westchester school — yet — but Chicago was a good foothold. Especially with the Runt's little adoptive daughter running things. LA would come easy enough too, he was pretty sure.

He looked around the room and finally headed over to the bookshelf — where he slipped an old copy of nursery rhymes on the shelf with the rest of them — then simply slipped back out of the Chicago Institute, with no one the wiser.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it for this volume - keep your eyes open for the next installment : "Powerless" coming soon!


End file.
